THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


IN  MEMORY  OF 

FRANCIS  WILLIAM  ("RIP")  RUBKE 
1890-1955 


CLASS  OF 


^ 


THE    HOLY   ROMAN    EMPIRE 


THE     HOLY 
ROMAN     EMPIRE 


BY 


JAMES    BRYCE,   D.C.L. 

HONORARY  FELLOW  OF  TRINITY  AND   ORIEL  COLLEGES 

OXFORD 

AUTHOR  OF  "TRANSCAUCASIA  AND    ARARAT,"   "THE  AMERICAN 
COMMONWEALTH,"   ETC. 


A  NEW  EDITION 

ENLARGED  AND  REVISED  THROUGHOUT,  WITH  A 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  EVENTS 

AND  THREE  MAPS 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON  :   MACMILLAN   &  CO.,  LTD. 


Att  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1904, 
BY   THE  MACMILLAN    COMPANY. 

Setupandelectrotyped.    Published  October,  1904.     Reprinted 
July,  1905*.  JulV>  X9°7- 


Norwood  Press 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


$7 


PREFACE  TO  THE  EDITION  OF  1904 

FORTY  years  have  passed  since  this  book  was  first  pub- 
lished, and  since  then  our  knowledge  of  mediaeval  history 
has  been  much  increased  and  events  have  happened  which 
render  some  of  the  remarks  then  made  no  longer  appli- 
cable. I  have  not  however  attempted  to  rewrite  the  whole 
book,  for  this  reason,  among  others,  that  were  I  to  do  so  it 
would  almost  inevitably  grow  out  of  a  small  volume  de- 
voted to  a  single  Idea  and  Institution  into  a  systematic 
history  of  the  Empire  and  the  Popedom  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  That  would  double  or  treble  its  size,  and  make  it 
unsuitable  to  one  class  of  the  students  who  have  used  it 
in  its  present  form.  I  have  therefore  confined  myself  to 
such  changes  and  enlargements  as  seemed  to  be  most 
needed.  Where  events  of  significance  had  been  omitted 
or  too  briefly  noticed,  additions  have  been  made.  For  in- 
stance, the  struggle  of  the  Emperor  Lewis  IV  against  Pope 
John  XXII  and  the  careers  of  Arnold  of  Brescia  and  Cola 
di  Rienzo  have  been  somewhat  more  fully  described.  An 
entirely  new  chapter  has  been  inserted  dealing  with  the 
East  Roman  or  Byzantine  Empire,  a  topic  inadequately 
handled  in  previous  editions.  A  concluding  chapter, 
sketching  the  constitution  of  the  new  German  Empire  and 
the  forces  which  have  given  it  strength  and  cohesion,  has 
been  appended.  This  chapter,  and  that  which  (first  pub- 
lished in  1873)  traces  the  process  whereby  after  1813  na- 
tional sentiment  grew  in  Germany,  and  national  unity  was 
achieved  in  1871,  are  not  indeed  necessary  for  the  explana- 


595 


vi  PREFACE   TO   EDITION   OF    1904 

tion  of  an  institution  whose  best  days  were  over  four 
centuries  ago.  But  they  help  to  explain  it,  if  only  by  con- 
trast ;  and  the  convenience  to  a  reader  of  finding  a  suc- 
cinct account  of  the  foundation  and  the  character  of  this 
modern  representative  —  if  one  may  call  it  so  —  of  the 
mediaeval  Empire  will,  I  hope,  be  deemed  to  compensate 
for  whatever  loss  of  symmetry  is  involved  in  an  extension 
of  the  treatise  beyond  its  original  limits.  With  a  similar 
practical  aim,  I  have  prefixed  a  pretty  full  Chronological 
Table  of  important  events,  presenting  such  an  outline  of 
the  narrative  history  of  the  Empire  as  may  serve  to  eluci- 
date the  text,  and  have  added  three  maps. 

The  book  has  been  revised  throughout :  statements 
which  seemed  to  have  been  too  broadly  expressed,  or 
which  political  changes  have  made  no  longer  true,  have 
been  corrected :  more  exact  references  have  been  given 
and  new  illustrations  inserted  in  the  notes.  I  have  to 
acknowledge  with  cordial  thanks  the  help  which  in  the 
verification  of  statements  and  references  I  have  received 
from  my  friend  Mr.  Ernest  Barker,  lecturer  on  history  at 
Wadham  College,  Oxford. 

Did  custom  permit  the  dedication  to  any  one  of  a  new 
edition  of  a  book  long  before  the  public,  I  should  have 
dedicated  the  pages  that  follow  to  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith, 
now  the  honoured  patriarch  of  English  historians,  from 
whom  forty-three  years  ago,  when  he  was  professor  at 
Oxford,  I  received  my  first  lessons  in  modern  history, 
and  whose  friendship  I  have  ever  since  been  privileged 
to  enjoy. 

JAMES   BRYCE. 

September  13,  1904. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FOURTH  EDITION 

THE  object  of  this  treatise  is  not  so  much  to  give  a 
narrative  history  of  the  countries  included  in  the  Romano- 
Germanic  Empire  —  Italy  during  the  Middle  Ages,  Ger- 
many from  the  ninth  century  to  the  nineteenth  —  as  to 
describe  the  Holy  Empire  itself  as  an  institution  or 
system,  the  wonderful  offspring  of  a  body  of  beliefs  and 
traditions  which  have  almost  wholly  passed  away  from 
the  world.  Such  a  description,  however,  would  not  be  in- 
telligible without  some  account  of  the  great  events  which 
accompanied  the  growth  and  decay  of  Imperial  power; 
and  it  has  therefore  appeared  best  to  give  the  book  the 
form  rather  of  a  narrative  than  of  a  dissertation ;  and  to 
combine  with  an  exposition  of  what  may  be  called  the 
theory  of  the  Empire  an  outline  of  the  political  history  of 
Germany,  as  well  as  some  notices  of  the  affairs  of  medi- 
aeval Italy.  To  make  the  succession  of  events  clearer, 
a  Chronological  List  of  Emperors  and  Popes  has  been 
prefixed. 

The  great  events  of  1866  and  1870  reflect  back  so 
much  light  upon  the  previous  history  of  Germany,  and  so 
much  need,  in  order  to  be  properly  understood,  to  be 
viewed  in  their  relation  to  the  character  and  influence 
of  the  old  Empire,  that  although  they  do  not  fall  within 
the  original  limits  of  this  treatise,  some  remarks  upon 
them,  and  the  causes  which  led  to  them,  will  not  be  out 
of  place  in  it,  and  will  perhaps  add  to  whatever  inter- 
est or  value  it  may  possess.  As  the  Author  found  that 

vii 


viii  PREFACE  TO   FOURTH   EDITION 

to  introduce  these  remarks  into  the  body  of  the  work, 
would  oblige  him  to  take  to  pieces  and  rewrite  the  last 
three  chapters,  a  task  he  had  no  time  for,  he  has  pre- 
ferred to  throw  them  into  a  new  supplementary  chapter, 
which  accordingly  contains  a  brief  sketch  of  the  rise  of 
Prussia,  of  the  state  of  Germany  under  the  Confederation 
which  expired  in  1866,  and  of  the  steps  whereby  the 
German  nation  has  regained  its  political  unity  in  the  new 
Empire. 

LINCOLN'S  INN,  LONDON, 
June  28,  1873. 


CONTENTS 


PACK 

CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  EMPERORS  AND  POPES      .        .        .     xix 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  IMPORTANT  EVENTS  IN  THE  HIS- 
TORY OF  THE  EMPIRE  •  .  xxxi 


CHAPTER   I 

INTRODUCTORY   I 

CHAPTER   II 

THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  BEFORE  THE  ENTRANCE  OF  THE 
BARBARIANS 

The  Empire  in  the  Second  Century 4 

Obliteration  of  National  Distinctions 5 

Rise  of  Christianity      .         ........  9 

Its  Alliance  with  the  State 9 

Its  Influence  on  the  Idea  of  an  Imperial  Nationality     ...  12 

CHAPTER   III 
THE  BARBARIAN  INVASIONS 

Relations  between  the  Primitive  Germans  and  the  Romans  .        .  14 

Feelings  of  the  Germans  towards  Rome  and  her  Empire      .         .  16 

Belief  in  the  Eternity  of  the  Roman  Dominion    ....  20 

Extinction  by  Odoacer  of  the  Western  Branch  of  the  Empire      .  25 

Theodorich  the  Ostrogothic  King 27 

Gradual  Dissolution  of  the  Empire 29 

Permanence  of  the  Roman  Religion  and  the  Roman  Law     .         .  31 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IV 
RESTORATION  OF  THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  WEST 

PAGE 

The  Franks :  Growth  of  their  Power   .                           ...  34 

Italy  under  East  Romans  and  Lombards 37 

The  Iconoclastic  Emperors  :  Revolt  of  Italy                  ...  38 

Alliance  of  the  Popes  with  the  Frankish  Kings    ....  39 

The  Frankish  Conquest  of  Italy 41 

Adventures  and  Plans  of  Pope  Leo  III  .        .        .        .44 

Coronation  of  Charles  the  Great  at  Rome 48 

CHAPTER  V 
EMPIRE  AND  POLICY  OF  CHARLES 

Import  of  the  Coronation  of  Charles 52 

Accounts  given  in  the  Annals  of  the  Time 53 

Question  as  to  the  Intentions  of  Charles 58 

Legal  Effect  of  the  Coronation 63 

Position  of  Charles  towards  the  Church 65 

Towards  his  German  Subjects      .......  68 

Towards  the  Other  Races  of  Europe    ......  69 

General  View  of  his  Character  and  Policy 73 

CHAPTER  VI 
CAROLINGIAN  AND  ITALIAN  EMPERORS 

Reign  of  Lewis  I  (the  Pious) 77 

Dissolution  of  the  Carolingian  Empire 79 

Beginnings  of  the  German  Kingdom  :  King  Conrad  I  and  King 

Henry  (the  Fowler) 80 

Italian  Emperors 81 

Otto  the  Saxon  King 84 

Coronation  of  Otto  as  Emperor  at  Rome 88 

CHAPTER  VII  l 
THEORY  OF  THE  MEDIAEVAL  EMPIRE 

The  World-monarchy  and  the  World-religion       ....  91 

Unity  of  the  Christian  Church      .......  94 

Influence  of  the  Doctrine  of  Realism 97 


CONTENTS  xi 


PAGB 

The  Popes  as  Heirs  to  the  Roman  Monarchy        ....     100 

Character  of  the  Revived  Roman  Empire 102 

Respective  Functions  of  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor     .        .        .     103 
Proofs  and  Illustrations        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .109 

Interpretations  of  Prophecy 113 

Two  Remarkable  Pictures 116 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  AND  THE  GERMAN  KINGDOM 

The  German  or  East  Frankish  Monarchy     .....     121 

Feudality  in  Germany  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .122 

Reciprocal  Influence  of  the  Roman  and  Teutonic  Elements  on  the 

Character  of  the  Empire I2C 

CHAPTER   IX 
SAXON  AND  FRANCONIAN  EMPERORS 

Adventures  of  Otto  the  Great  in  Rome 133 

Trial  and  Deposition  of  Pope  John  XII 135 

Position  of  Otto  in  Italy       .         . 138 

His  European  Policy 239 

Comparison  of  his  Empire  with  the  Carolingian  ....     143 
Character  and  Projects  of  the  Emperor  Otto  III  .         .         .         .144 

The  Emperors  Henry  II  and  Conrad  II 148 

The  Emperor  Henry  III :  his  Reform  of  the  Papacy    .         .         .150 

CHAPTER  X 
STRUGGLE  OF  THE  EMPIRE  AND  THE  PAPACY 

Origin  and  Progress  of  Papal  Power 153 

Relations  of  the  Popes  with  the  Early  Emperors  .         .         .     155 

Quarrel  of  Henry  IV  and  Gregory  VII  over  Investitures       .         .159 

Gregory's  Ideas 160 

Concordat  of  Worms  .         .         .- 163 

General  Results  of  the  Contest 164 


xii  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  EMPERORS  IN  ITALY:  FREDERICK  BARBAROSSA 

PAGB 

Frederick  and  the  Papacy 167 

Revival  of  the  Study  of  the  Roman  Law 172 

Arnold  of  Brescia  and  the  Roman  Republicans    ....  174 
Frederick's  Struggle  with  the  Lombard  Cities       .         .         .         .176 

His  Policy  as  German  King 179 

CHAPTER  XII 
IMPERIAL  TITLES  AND  PRETENSIONS 

Territorial  Limits  of  the  Empire  —  Its  Claims  of  Jurisdiction  over 

Other  Countries    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  183  ' 

Hungary 183 

Poland 184 

Denmark  ..........  184 

France 185 

Sweden,  Norway,  Iceland 186 

Spain 186 

England 187 

Scotland   . 189 

Ireland      ..........  189 

South  Italy  and  Sicily 190 

Venice 190 

Cyprus  and  Armenia 191 

The  East 191 

Rivalry  of  the  Teutonic  and  Byzantine  Emperors         .         .         .192 

The  Four  Crowns 193 

Title  of  Emperor  not  taken  till  Roman  Coronation       .         .         .  195 
Origin  and  Meaning  of  the  Title  « Holy  Empire '          .        .        .196 

CHAPTER  XIII 

FALL  OF  THE  HOHENSTAUFEN  :   RENEWED  STRIFE  OF 
PAPACY  AND  EMPIRE 

Reign  of  Henry  VI .  205 

Contest  of  Philip  and  Otto  IV 206 

Character  and  Career  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  II       .        .         .207 


CONTENTS  xm 


PAGE 

Destruction  of  Imperial  Authority  in  Italy   .         .        *         .        .     212 
The  Great  Interregnum        .         .         .         .        «        .       •.         .     213 

Rudolf  of  Hapsburg    .         .         .         .        .         •        •        •         .215 

Change  in  the  Character  of  the  Empire        .         .         ..       .         .     215 

Haughty  Demeanour  of  the  Popes        .         .      •  .         .         .         .218 

Conflict  between  the  Emperor  Lewis  IV  and  Pope  John  XXII      .     222 
Protest  of  the  Electors  at  Rhense         .      :.        .        .        .        .     225 

The  Defensor  Pads  of  Marsilius  of  Padua 225 

Incipient  Decline  of  Papal  Power 227 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  GERMANIC  CONSTITUTION  —  THE  SEVEN  ELECTORS 

Germany  in  the  Fourteenth  Century 229 

Reign  of  the  Emperor  Charles  IV        ..         .         .         .         .  233 

Origin  and  History  of  the  System  of  Election      .         .         .  234 

Proceedings  at  Imperial  Elections        .        .        .        .        .        .  237 

The  Electoral  College           ....       V        .        .        .  238 

The  Golden  Bull  of  Charles  IV    .         .         .        .        .         .         .243 

Remarks  on  the  Elective  Monarchy  of  Germany  ....  247 

Results  of  Charles  IV's  Policy 249 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE  EMPIRE  AS  AN  INTERNATIONAL  POWER 

Revival  of  Learning     .         .         .        .        .      '  i        .         .  .  254 

Beginnings  of  Political  Thought .         .         «...  .  255 

Desire  for  an  International  Authority  to  secure  Peace  .         .  .  256 

Theory  of  the  Emperor's  Functions  as  Monarch  of  Europe  .  258 

Illustrations 265 

Relations  of  the  Empire  and  the  New  Learning  .        ^     .  .  .  267 

The  Men  of  Letters  —  Petrarch,  Dante         .         .        •-.•-••^*^  .  270 

The  Jurists           ......       ..         .         .  .  272 

Passion  for  Antiquity  in  the  Middle  Ages  :  its  Causes  .         .  .  273 

The  Emperor  Henry  VII  in  Italy          .         .     'V*         .         .  .278 

The  De  Monarchia  of  Dante  280 


xiv  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  CITY  OF  ROME  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

FACE 

Rapid  Decline  of  the  City  after  the  Gothic  Wars          .        .        .288 

Her  Condition  in  the  Dark  Ages 289 

Republican  Revival  of  the  Twelfth  Century         .        .        .        .291 

The  Preaching  of  Arnold  of  Brescia 292 

Ideas  and  Career  of  Nicholas  Rienzo 296 

Social  State  of  Mediaeval  Rome 301 

Visits  of  the  Teutonic  Emperors 303. 

Revolts  against  them 305 

Existing  Traces  of  their  Presence  in  Rome  .         .         .         .307 

Want  of  Mediaeval,  and  especially  of  Gothic  Buildings,  in  Modern 

Rome 309 

Causes  of  this ;  Ravages  of  Enemies  and  Citizens        .        .        .  309 

Modern  Restorations 312 

Surviving  Features  of  truly  Mediaeval  Architecture  —  the  Bell- 
towers,  the  Mosaics 314 

The  Roman  Church  and  the  Roman  City 315 

Rome  since  the  Revolution 318 

CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  EAST  ROMAN  EMPIRE 

Indifference  of  the  Westerns  to  the  Empire  in  the  East  .  .  321 
The  Revival  of  the  Empire  in  the  West  did  not  substantially 

weaken  the  Eastern  Empire 322 

Struggles  against  the  Barbarians  and  the  Muslims  .  .  .  324 

Causes  which  enabled  the  Eastern  Empire  to  maintain  itself  .  327 

Its  Civil  and  Military  Administration 328 

The  Eastern  Empire  a  Pure  Autocracy 330 

Relations  of  Eastern  Empire  and  Church  to  the  Barbarians  .  333 

The  Eastern  Empire  and  the  Orthodox  Church  ....  337 

Influence  of  the  Secular  Power  on  the  Church  ....  338 
Rival  Claims  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  Lines  to  represent  the 

Ancient  Roman  Empire .  340 

The  Existence  of  the  Eastern  Empire  affected  but  slightly  the 

Prestige  of  the  Western 344 

The  Existence  of  the  Western  did  not  trouble  the  Minds  of  the 

Easterns 346 


CONTENTS  xv 


PAGE 

Why  the  Easterns  did  not  idealize  their  Emperor          .         .        .  347 

Character  of  the  Intellect  of  the  East  Romans     ....  350 

Their  History  compared  with  that  of  the  West    ....  350 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  RENAISSANCE:   CHANGE  IN  THE  CHARACTER  OF 
THE  EMPIRE 

Weakness  of  Germany 353 

Loss  of  Imperial  Territories 354 

Gradual  Change  inHhe  Germanic  Constitution      ....  359 

Beginning  of  the  Predominance  of  the  Hapsburgs        .         .         .  361 

The  Discovery  of  America  ........  362 

The  Renaissance  and  its  Effects  on  the  Empire    ....  363 

Projects  of  Constitutional  Reform        ......  365 

Changes  of  Title  in  Germany 368 

CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  REFORMATION  AND  ITS  EFFECTS  UPON  THE  EMPIRE 

Accession  of  Charles  V 371 

His  Attitude  towards  the  Reformation          .....  373 

Issue  of  his  Attempts  at  Coercion         ......  374 

Spirit  and  Essence  of  the  Religious  Movement    ....  377 

Its  Influence  on  the  Doctrine  of  the  Visible  Church     .         .         .  379 
How  far  it  promoted  Civil  and  Religious  Liberty          .         .         .381 

Its  Effect  upon  the  Mediaeval  Theory  of  the  Empire  .         .         .  384 

!Upon  the  Position  of  the  Emperor  in  Europe       ....  385 

Dissensions  in  Germany 386 

The  Thirty  Years'  War 387 

CHAPTER  XX 

THE  PEACE  OF  WESTPHALIA:   LAST  STAGE  IN  THE 
DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE 

Political  Import  of  the  Peace  of  Westphalia         ....  389 

(Hippolytus  a  Lapide  and  his  Book 390 

'Changes  in  the  Germanic  Constitution         .....  391 

Narrowed  Bounds  of  the  Empire 393 


xvi  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Condition  of  Germany  after  the  Peace 394 

The  Balance  of  Power                            397 

The  Hapsburg  Emperors  and  their  Policy 400 

The  Emperors  Charles  VII  and  Joseph  II 403 

The  Empire  in  its  Last  Phase 40; 

Feelings  of  the  German  People 406 


CHAPTER  XXI  v 
FALL  OF  THE  EMPIRE 

The  Emperor  Francis  II       .  ....    408 

Napoleon  as  the  Representative  of  the  Carolingians     .        .         .    408 
France  and  the  French  Empire    .         .         .         .         .         .         .412 

Napoleon's  German  Policy  .         .         .         .         .        .        .         .     41; 

The  Confederation  of  the  Rhine 41, 

End  of  the  Empire       .         .         .         .         .         .         •         •         .415 

The  Germanic  Confederation       .         .        .        .        .        .        .416 


CHAPTER  XXII 
SUMMARY  AND  REFLECTIONS 

Causes  of  the  Perpetuation  of  the  Name  of  Rome       .        .        .419 
Parallel  Instances :    Claims  now  made  to  represent  the  Roman 

Empire 420 

Parallel  afforded  by  the  History  of  the  Papacy     .         .         .         .  42 : 

In  how  far  was  the  Empire  really  Roman  ? 426 

Imperialism :  Ancient  and  Modern       ......  428 

Essential  Principles  of  the  Mediaeval  Empire       ....  429 

Influence  of  the  Imperial  System  in  Germany       ....  430 

The  Claim  of  Modern  Austria  to  represent  the  Mediaeval  Empire  432 

Results  of  the  Influence  of  the  Empire  upon  Europe  generally     .  434 

Upon  Modern  Jurisprudence 435 

-•Upon  the  Developement  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Power    .         .         .  436 

Struggle  of  the  Empire  with  Three  Hostile  Principles           .         .  440 

Its  Relations,  Past  and  Present,  to  the  Nationalities  of  Europe     .  442 

Conclusion 444 


CONTENTS  xvil 


SUPPLEMENTAL   CHAPTERS 

CHAPTER  XXIII 
THE  PROGRESS  OF  GERMANY  TOWARDS  NATIONAL  UNITY 

PAGE 

Recapitulation  :  Stages  in  the  Decay  of  the  Old  Empire       .         .  447 

Denationalization  of  Germany 449 

The  Margraviate  of  Brandenburg  and  the  House  of  Hohenzollern  450 

The  Kingdom  of  Prussia ,         .         .452 

Character  and  Reign  of  Frederick  the  Great         .         .         .         -  453 

Prussia  during  the  Wars  of  the  Revolution  .....  455 

The  Congress  of  Vienna      ........  458 

Establishment  of  the  Germanic  Confederation      ....  459 

Aims  and  Efforts  of  the  German  Liberals 463 

The  Revolution  of  1848-9 466 

Restoration  of  the  Confederation  and  its  Diet      ....  467 

The  German  Parties  and  their  Policy  ......  469 

The  Schleswig-Holstein  War 472 

Convention  of  Gastein         ........  476 

War  of  1866:  Fall  of  the  Confederation 477 

The  North  German  Confederation        ......  478 

The  War  of  1870  with  France 481 

Establishment  of  a  New  Empire  in  Germany       ....  482 

CHAPTER  XXIV 
THE  NEW  GERMAN  EMPIRE 

Constitution  of  the  New  Empire  a  Developement  of  the  North 

German  Federation       ........  483 

Structure  of  the  Federal  System 486 

Organs  of  the  Central  Government :  The  Executive     .         .         .  486 

The  Legislature  :  Bundesrath  and  Reichstag        ....  486 

Germany  now  more  united  than  ever  since  the  Middle  Ages          .  490 

Prospects  of  the  Maintenance  of  National  Unity           .         .         .  491 

Causes  which  have  worked  for  the  Cohesion  of  the  Empire           .  493 

Growth  of  National  Feeling  since  1814         .         .         .         .         .  495 

Prussia's  Part  in  the  Achievement  of  National  Unity    .         .         .  498 


xviii  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

How  far  the  New  Empire  represents  the  Ancient  Holy  Empire     .     500 
Parallel    between   Germany   and   Italy   in   their  Attainment   of 

National  Unity 504 

EPILOGUE 505 

ADDITIONAL  NOTES. 

Notes  I-XXIV  to  the  Preceding  Chapters     .        .        .        .513 


APPENDIX 

NOTE  A.  —  On  the  Burgundies 529 

NOTE  B.  —  On  the  Relations  to  the  Empire  of  the  Kingdom  of 

Denmark,  and  the  Duchies  of  Schleswig  and  Holstein  .  .  533 
NOTE  C.  —  On  Certain  Imperial  Titles  and  Ceremonies  .  -535 
NOTE  D.  —  Hildebert's  Lines  contrasting  the  Past  and  Present 

of  Rome 542 

NOTE  E.  —  List  of  Books  which  the  Student  may  consult  .  .  543 

INDEX 545 


MAPS 

I.    Map  showing  the  extent  of  the  Roman  Empire  of  Charles 

the  Great,  A. D.  814 to  face      70 

II.     Map  showing  the  extent  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  at  the 

death  of  Frederick  I,  A. D.  1190       .         .         .       to  face     180 
III.    Map  showing  the  extent  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  at  the 

death  of  Maximilian  I,  A.D.  1519   .         .        .       to  face    370 


CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE 


OF 


EMPERORS   AND    POPES 


Year  of 
Accession 

Bishops  of  Rome 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

A.D. 

B.C. 

Augustus. 

27 

A.D. 

Tiberius. 

H 

Caligula. 

37 

Claudius. 

41 

42 

St.    Peter    (according    to 

Jerome). 

Nero. 

54 

67 

Linus   (according   to    Ire- 

naeus,  Eusebius,  Jerome). 

68 

Clement  (according  to  Ter- 

Galba,      Otho,      Vitellius, 

tullian  and  Rufinus). 

Vespasian. 

68 

78 

Anacletus  (?). 

Titus. 

79 

Domitian. 

81 

9i 

Clement      (according      to 

some  later  writers). 

Nerva. 

96 

Trajan. 

98 

100 

Evarestus  (?). 

109 

Alexander  (?). 

Hadrian. 

117 

119 

Sixtus  I. 

129 

Telesphorus. 

Antoninus  Pius. 

138 

139 

Hyginus. 

143 

Pius  I. 

157 

Anicetus. 

Marcus  Aurelius. 

161 

168 

Soter. 

177 

Eleutherius. 

Commodus. 

180 

Pertinax. 

193 

XX 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE   OF 


Year  of 
Accession 

Bishops  of  Rome 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

Didius  Julianus. 

193 

Niger. 

193 

193 

Victor  (?). 

Septimius  Severus. 

193 

2O2 

Zephyrinus  (?). 

Caracalla,  Geta. 

211 

Opilius   Macrinus,    Diadu- 

menian. 

217 

Elagabalus. 

218 

219 

Calixtus  I. 

Alexander  Severus. 

222 

223 

Urban  I. 

230 

Pontianus. 

235 

Anterius  or  Anteros. 

Maximin. 

235 

236 

Fabianus. 

The  two  Gordians,   Maxi- 

mus  Pupienus,  Balbinus. 

237 

The  third  Gordian. 

238 

Philip. 

244 

Decius. 

249 

251 

Cornelius. 

Hostilian,  Gallus. 

25  * 

252 

Lucius  I. 

Volusian. 

252 

253 

Stephen  I. 

Aemilian,    Valerian,    Gal- 

lienus. 

2">3 

257 

Sixtus  II. 

JO 

259 

Dionysius. 

Gallienus  alone. 

260 

Claudius  II. 

268 

269 

Felix. 

Aurelian. 

270 

275 

Eutychianus. 

Tacitus. 

275 

Florian. 

276 

Probus. 

276 

Carus. 

282 

283 

Caius. 

Carinus,  Numerian. 

284 

Diocletian. 

284 

Maximian,  associated  with 

Diocletian. 

286 

296 

Marcellinus. 

304 

Vacancy. 

Constantius,  Galerius. 

305 

Severus. 

306 

Constantine  (the  Great). 

306 

Licinius. 

307 

EMPERORS   AND   POPES 


xxi 


Year  of 
Accession 

Bishops  of  Rome 

Emperors 

Year  of 

Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

308 

Marcellus  I. 

Maximin. 

308 

Constantine,   Galerius,  Li- 

cinius,    Maximin,    Max- 

entius,     and     Maximian 

reigning  jointly. 

309 

310 

Eusebius. 

3" 

Melchiades. 

3H 

Sylvester  I. 

Constantine    (the     Great) 

alone. 

323 

336 

Marcus  I. 

337 

Julius  I. 

Constantine    II,    Constan- 

tius  II,  Constans. 

337 

Magnentius. 

352 

Liberius. 

Constantius  alone. 

353 

356 

(Felix,  Anti-pope.) 

Julian. 

36i 

Jovian. 

363 

Valens  and  Valentinian  I. 

364 

366 

Damasus  I. 

Gratian  and  Valentinian  I. 

367 

Gratian  and  Valentinian  II. 

375   ' 

Theodosius. 

379 

384 

Siricius. 

Arcadius    (in    the     East), 

Honorius  (in  the  West). 

395 

398 

Anastasius  I. 

402 

Innocent  I. 

Theodosius  II.  (E) 

408 

417 

Zosimus. 

418 

Boniface  I. 

418 

(Eulalius,  Anti-pope.) 

422 

Celestine  I. 

Valentinian  III.  (W) 

424 

432 

Sixtus  III. 

440 

Leo  I  (the  Great). 

Marcian.  (E) 

450 

Maximus,  Avitus.  (W) 

455 

Majorian.  (W) 

455 

Leo  I.  (E) 

457 

461 

Hilarius. 

Severus.  (W) 

461 

Vacancy.  (W) 

465 

xxii 


CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE   OF 


Year  of 
Accession 

Bishops  of  Rome 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

Anthemius.  (W) 

467 

468 

Simplicius. 

Olybrius.  (W) 

472 

Glycerius.  (W) 

473 

Julius  Nepos.  (W) 

474 

Leo    II,   Zeno,   Basiliscus. 

(A11E) 

474 

Romulus  Augustulus.  (W) 

475 

(End  of  the  Western  line 

in  Romulus  Augustulus.) 

476 

{Henceforth,  till  A.D.  800, 

Emperors     reigning    at 

483 

Felix  III.* 

Constantinople?) 

Anastasius  I. 

491 

492 

Gelasius  I. 

496 

Anastasius  II. 

498 

Symmachus. 

498 

(Laurentius,  Anti-pope.) 

5*4 

Hormisdas. 

Justin  I. 

518 

523 

John  I. 

526 

Felix  IV. 

Justinian. 

527 

530 

Boniface  II. 

530 

(Dioscorus,  Anti-pope). 

532 

John  II. 

535 

Agapetus  I. 

536 

Silverius. 

537 

Vigilius. 

555 

Pelagius  I. 

560 

John  III. 

Justin  II. 

565 

574 

Benedict  I. 

578 

Pelagius  II. 

Tiberius  II. 

578 

Maurice. 

582 

590 

Gregory  I  (the  Great). 

Phocas. 

602 

604 

Sabinianus. 

607 

Boniface  III. 

607 

Boniface  IV. 

Heraclius. 

610 

615 

Deus  dedit. 

618 

Boniface  V. 

*  Reckoning  the  Anti-pope  Felix  (A.D.  356)  as  Felix  II. 

EMPERORS   AND   POPES 


xxiii 


Year  of 

Accession 

Popes 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

625 

Honorius  I. 

638 

Severinus. 

640 

John  IV. 

Constantine  III,  Heracleo- 

642 

Theodorus  I. 

nas,  Constans  II. 

64I 

649 

Martin  I. 

654 

Eugenius  I. 

657 

Vitalianus 

Constantine     IV      (Pogo- 

672 

Adeodatus. 

natus). 

668 

676 

Domnus  or  Donus  I. 

678 

Agatho. 

682 

Leo  II. 

683(?) 

Benedict  II. 

685 

John  V. 

Justinian  IL 

685 

685  (?) 

Conon. 

687 

Sergius  I. 

687 

(Paschal,  Anti-pope.) 

687 

(Theodorus,  Anti-pope.) 

Leontius. 

694 

Tiberius  III. 

697 

701 

John  VI. 

y  § 

705 

John  VII. 

Justinian  II  restored. 

7°5 

708 

Sisinnius. 

708 

Constantine. 

Philippicus  Bardanes. 

711 

Anastasius  II. 

7J5 

715 

Gregory  II. 

/   o 

Theodosius  III. 

7l6 

73i 

Gregory  IIL 

Leo  III  (the  Isaurian). 

7I8 

74i 

Zacharias. 

Constantine   V    (Coprony- 

752 

Stephen  (II). 

mus). 

741 

752 

Stephen  II  (or  III). 

757 

Paul  I. 

767 

(Constantine,  Anti-pope.) 

768 

Stephen  III  (IV). 

772 

Hadrian  I. 

LeoTV. 

775 

Constantine  VI. 

780 

795 

Leo  III. 

Deposition  of  Constantine 

VI  by  Irene. 

797 

XXIV 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE   OF 


Year  of 

Popes 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

Charles  I  (the  Great). 

800 

(Following  henceforth    the 

new  Western  line.) 

Lewis  I  (the  Pious). 

8l4 

816 

Stephen  IV. 

817 

Paschal  I. 

824 

Eugenius  II. 

827 

Valentinus. 

827 

Gregory  IV. 

Lothar  I. 

840 

844 

Sergius  II. 

847 

Leo  IV. 

855 

Benedict  III. 

Lewis  II  (in  Italy). 

855 

855 

(Anastasius,  Anti-pope.) 

858 

Nicholas  I. 

867 

Hadrian  II. 

872 

John  VIII. 

Charles  II,  the  Bald  (W. 

Frankish). 

875 

Charles  III,   the   Fat    (E. 

882 

Martin  II. 

Frankish). 

881 

884 

Hadrian  III. 

Interval  from  888. 

885 

Stephen  V. 

891 

Formosus. 

Guido  (in  Italy). 

891 

Lambert  (in  Italy). 

894 

896 

Boniface  VI. 

Arnulf  (E.  Frankish). 

896 

896 

Stephen  VI. 

897 

Romanus. 

897 

Theodore  II. 

898 

John  IX. 

Lewis  (the  Child}* 

899 

900 

Benedict  IV. 

Lewis   III    king    of    Pro- 

903 

Leo  V. 

vence  (in  Italy). 

901 

903 

Christopher. 

904 

Sergius  III. 

911 

Anastasius  III. 

Conrad  I. 

911 

913 

Lando. 

914 

John  X. 

Berengar  (in  Italy)  . 

915 

Henry  I  (the   Fowler}    of 

928 

Leo  VI. 

Saxony. 

918 

*  The  names  in  italics  are  those  of  East  Frankish  or  German  kings  who  never  made 

any  claim  to  the  imperial  title. 

EMPERORS   AND   POPES 


XXV 


Year  of 
Accession 

Popes 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

929 

Stephen  VII. 

931 

John  XI. 

936 

Leo  VII. 

Otto  I  (the  Great),  crowned 

939 

Stephen  VIII. 

E.     Frankish     king     at 

941 

Martin  III. 

Aachen. 

936 

946 

Agapetus  II. 

955 

John  XII. 

Saxon  House. 

Otto  I,  crowned  Emperor 

963 

Leo  VIII. 

at  Rome. 

962 

964 

(Benedict  V,  Anti-pope?) 

965 

John  XIII. 

972 

Benedict  VI. 

Otto  II. 

973 

974 

(Boniface  VII,  Anti-pope?) 

974 

Domnus  II  (?). 

974 

Benedict  VII. 

983 

John  XIV. 

Otto  III. 

983 

985 

John  XV. 

996 

Gregory  V. 

996 

(John  XVI,  Anti-pope?) 

999 

Sylvester  II. 

Henry  II  (the  Saint). 

1002 

1003 

John  XVII. 

1003 

John  XVIII. 

1009 

Sergius  IV. 

IOI2 

Benedict  VIII. 

House  of  Franconia. 

IO24 

John  XIX. 

Conrad  II  (the  Salic). 

IO24 

IO33 

Benedict  IX. 

1044 

(Sylvester,  Anti-pope.) 

Henry  III  (the  Black). 

1039 

1045 

Gregory  VI. 

1046 

Clement  II. 

1048 

Damasus  II. 

1048 

Leo  IX. 

IOC4 

Victor  II. 

Henry  IV. 

1056 

I057 

Stephen  IX. 

1058 

Benedict  X. 

1059 

Nicholas  II. 

1061 

Alexander  II. 

'073 
1080 

Gregory  VII  (Hildebrand). 
(Clement,  Anti-pope.) 

(Rudolf  of  Swabia,  rival.) 

1077 

(Hermann  of  Luxemburg, 

1086 

Victor  III. 

rival.) 

1081 

xxvi 


CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE   OP 


Year  of 
Accession 

Popes 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

1087 

Urban  II. 

(Conrad  of  Franconia,  rival) 

1093 

1099 

Paschal  II. 

1  102 

(Albert,  Anti-pope.) 

1105 

(Sylvester,  Anti-pope.) 

Henry  V. 

1106 

1118 

Gelasius  II. 

1118 

(Gregory,  Anti-pope.) 

1119 

Calixtus  II. 

1  121 

(Celestine,  Anti-pope.) 

1124 

Honorius  II. 

Lothar  II  (of  Saxony). 

"25 

1130 

Innocent  II. 

House  of  Swabia  or  Hohen- 

staufen. 

(Anacletus,  Anti-pope.) 

*  Conrad  III. 

1138 

1138 

(Victor,  Anti-pope.) 

1143 

Celestine  II. 

1144 

Lucius  II. 

"45 

Eugenius  III. 

Frederick  I  (Barbarossa). 

1152 

"53 

Anastasius  IV. 

"54 

Hadrian  IV. 

"59 

Alexander  III. 

"59 

(Victor,  Anti-pope.) 

1164 

(Paschal,  Anti-pope.) 

1168 

(Calixtus,  Anti-pope.) 

1181 

Lucius  HI. 

1185 

Urban  III. 

1187 

Gregory  VIII. 

1187 

Clement  III. 

Henry  VI. 

1190 

1191 

Celestine  III. 

*  Philip,  Otto  IV  (rivals). 

"97 

1198 

Innocent  III. 

Otto  IV  (House  of  Bruns- 

-wicK). 

1208 

Frederick  II. 

1212 

1216 

Honorius  III. 

1227 

Gregory  IX. 

1241 

Celestine  IV. 

1241 

Vacancy. 

1243 

Innocent  IV. 

(Henry  Raspe,  rival.) 

1246 

(William  of  Holland,  rival.) 

1246-7 

*  Those  marked  with  an  asterisk  were  never  actually  crowned  at  Rome. 

EMPERORS   AND   POPES 


xxvil 


Year  of 

Accession 

Popes 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

*Conrad  IV. 

1250 

1254 

Alexander  IV. 

Interregnum. 

1254 

*  Richard  (earl  of  Cornwall), 

*Alfonso  (king  of  Castile) 

I26l 

Urban  IV. 

(rivals). 

I257 

1265 

Clement  IV. 

1269 

Vacancy. 

1271 

Gregory  X. 

*Rudolf  I  (of  Hapsburg). 

"73 

1276 

Innocent  V. 

1276 

Hadrian  V. 

1277 

John  XX  or  XXL 

1277 

Nicholas  III. 

I28l 

Martin  IV. 

1285 

Honorius  IV. 

1289 

Nicholas  IV. 

1292 

Vacancy. 

*Adolf  (of  Nassau). 

1292 

1294 

Celestine  V. 

1294 

Boniface  VIII. 

*Albert  I  (of  Hapsburg). 

1298 

1303 

Benedict  XI. 

1305 

Clement  V. 

Henry  VII  (of  Luxemburg). 

1308 

I3H 

Vacancy. 

Lewis  IV  (of  Bavaria). 

I3H 

(Frederick  of  Austria,  rival.) 

1316 

John  XXII. 

1334 

Benedict  XII. 

1342 

Cement  VI. 

Charles  IV  (of  Luxemburg). 

1352 

Innocent  VI. 

(Gunther  of  Schwartzburg, 

1362 

Urban  V. 

rival.) 

1347 

1370 

Gregory  XI. 

1378 

Urban  VI. 

*Wenzel  (of  Luxemburg). 

1378 

(Clement  VII,  Anti-pope.) 

Beginning    of  the    Great 

Schism. 

1389 

Boniface  IX. 

1394 

(Benedict,  Anti-pope.) 

1404 

Innocent  VII. 

*Rupert  (of  the  Palatinate). 

1400 

1406 

Gregory  XII. 

1409 

Alexander  V. 

*  Those  marked  with  an  asterisk  were  never  actually  crowned  at  Rome. 

XXV111 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF 


Year  of 
Accession 

Popes 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

1410 

John  XXIII. 

Sigismund  (of  Luxemburg). 
(Jobst,  of  Moravia,  rival.) 

1410 

End  of  the  Great  Schism. 

1417 

Martin  V. 

I431 

Eugene  IV. 

*Albert  II  (of  Hapsburg)  .f 

1438 

1439 

(Felix  V,  Anti-pope.) 

Frederick  III. 

1440 

1447 

Nicholas  V. 

H55 

Calixtus  III. 

1458 

Pius  II. 

1464 

Paul  II. 

1471 

Sixtus  IV. 

1484 

Innocent  VIII. 

1493 

Alexander  VI. 

*  Maximilian  I. 

1493 

J5°3 

Pius  III. 

1503 

Julius  II. 

1513 

LeoX. 

{Charles  V. 

IS'9 

1522 

Hadrian  VI. 

X523 

Clement  VII. 

J534 

Paul  III. 

1550 

Julius  III. 

1555 

Marcellus  II. 

ICCC 

Paul  IV. 

*Ferdinand  I. 

1558 

1SS9 

Pius  IV. 

*Maximilian  II. 

1564 

1566 

Pius  V. 

1572 

Gregory  XIII. 

*Rudolf  II. 

1576 

1585 

Sixtus  V. 

1590 

Urban  VII. 

1590 

Gregory  XIV. 

I59I 

Innocent  IX. 

1592 

Clement  VIII. 

1604 

Leo  XI. 

1604 

PaulV. 

*Matthias. 

1612 

*Ferdinand  II. 

1619 

*  Those  marked  with  an  asterisk  were  never  actually  crowned  at  Rome, 
t  All  the  succeeding  Emperors,  except  Charles  VII  and  Francis  I,  belong  to  the  House 

of  Hapsburg. 
f  Crowned  Emperor,  but  at  Bologna,  not  at  Rome. 

EMPERORS   AND   POPES 


xxix 


Year  of 
Accession 

Popes 

Emperors 

Year  of 
Accession 

A.D. 

A.D. 

1621 

Gregory  XV. 

1623 

Urban  VIII. 

*Ferdinand  III. 

1637 

1644 

Innocent  X. 

1655 

Alexander  VII. 

"Leopold  I. 

1658 

1667 

Clement  IX. 

1670 

Clement  X. 

1676 

Innocent  XI. 

1689 

Alexander  VIII. 

1691 

Innocent  XII. 

1700 

Clement  XI. 

"Joseph  I. 

1705 

"Charles  VI. 

I7II 

1720 

Innocent  XIII. 

1724 

Benedict  XIII. 

1730 

Clement  XII. 

1740 

Benedict  XIV. 

"Charles  VII  (of  Bavaria). 

1742 

"Francis  I  (of  Lorraine). 

1745 

I758 

Clement  XIII. 

"Joseph  II. 

1765 

1769 

Clement  XIV. 

1775 

Pius  VI. 

"Leopold  II. 

1790 

"Francis  II. 

1792 

I800 

Pius  VII. 

ABDICATION  OF  FRANCIS  II. 

1806 

1823 

Leo  XII. 

1829 

Pius  VIII. 

1831 

Gregory  XVL 

I846 

Pius  IX. 

GERMAN  EMPERORS 

William  I. 

1871 

Frederick. 

1888 

William  II. 

1888 

1878 

Leo  XIII. 

1903 

Pius  X. 

*  Those  marked  with  an  asterisk  were  never  actually  crowned  at  Rome. 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF 

IMPORTANT   EVENTS   IN   THE   HISTORY 

OF  THE   EMPIRE 

B.C.  48  Battle  of  Pharsalus.    Julius  Caesar  receives   the  power  of  a 

tribune  for  life,  and  (B.C.  45)  a  perpetual  dictatorship. 
31  Battle  of  Actium.     Octavianus  (Augustus)  becomes  master  of 

the  whole  dominions  of  Rome. 

A.D.  9  Defeat  of  the  Roman  army  under  Varus  in  Westphalia :  con- 
sequent abandonment  of  the  policy  of  conquering  Germany. 
64  First  persecution  of  the  Christians  under  Nero. 

292  Division  of  the  Empire  into  four  areas  of  government:  first 
appearance  of  the  East  as  a  separate  realm. 

313  Recognition  of  Christianity  by  Edict  of  Cons  tan  tine  as  a  lawful 
religion. 

325  Constantine  presides  in  the   First  General  Council  of  Nicaea 

which  condemns  the  Arians  and  issues  the  Nicene  Creed. 
326-8  Constantinople  or  New  Rome,  founded  by  extending  the  site  of 
the  ancient  Greek  colony  of  Byzantium,  becomes  the  seat  of 
imperial  government. 

361  Efforts  of  Julian  to  restore  pagan  worship  in  the  Roman  Empire. 

364  Division  of  the  Empire  by  Valentinian  I  into  an  Eastern  and 
a  Western  realm. 

376  A  large  body  of  Goths  permitted  to  cross  the  Danube  into  the 
Empire :  subsequent  war  between  them  and  the  Emperor 
Valens  :  he  is  defeated  and  killed  in  the  battle  of  Adrianople 
in  378. 

395  Final  Division  of  the  Empire  between  Arcadius  who  receives 
the  Eastern  and  Honorius  who  receives  the  Western  prov- 
inces. 

409  Abandonment  of  Britain  by  the  Roman  armies. 

410  Capture  and  sack  of  Rome  by  the  West  Goths  under  Alarich. 
412  Foundation  of  a  West  Gothic  monarchy  in  Southern  Gaul  by 

Athaulf  (who  marries  Placidia  daughter  of  Theodosius  the 
Great),  and  (419)  by  his  successor  Wallia. 


xxxii  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

—       -  - 

395~43°  St.  Augustine,  Bishop  of  Hippo  in  Africa:  he  composes  his 

De  Cimtate  Dei  between  413  and  426. 
429  The  Vandals  enter  Africa,  having  traversed  Gaul  and  Spain, 

and  found  a  kingdom  there. 

443~75  The  Burgundians  form  a  monarchy  in  Southeastern  Gaul. 
462-72  Euric,  king  of  the  West  Goths,  conquers  Spain  and  establishes 
there  the  Gothic  monarchy  which  lasts  till  the  Arab  con- 
quest. 

455  Invasion  of  Italy  and  sack  of  Rome  by  the  Vandal  Gaiserich. 
451  Fourth  General  Council  held  at  Chalcedon :  settlement  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Nature  of  Christ  and  consequent  alienation 
of  the  Monophysites  of  Egypt  and  Syria. 
451-2  Attila  invades  Gaul  and  is  repulsed  near  Chalons-sur-Marne. 

He  then  enters  Italy  and  destroys  Aquileia. 

476  Odoacer  deposes  the  Emperor  Romulus  Augustulus  and  as- 
sumes the  rule  of  Italy,  which  is  however  nominally  reunited 
to  the  Eastern  half  of  the  Empire. 

481-511  Reign  of  Clovis  king  of  the  Franks  :  he  enters  Gaul,  overcomes 
Syagrius,  ruling  at  Soissons,  defeats  the  Burgundians  and 
the  West  Goths  (of  Aquitaine),  and  establishes  the  Frankish 
monarchy,  which  includes  Gaul  and  Western  Germany,  the 
Burgundians  being  reduced  to  dependence. 
489-526  Theodorich  the  Amal  leads  the  East  Goths  across  the  Alps, 

defeats  Odoacer,  and  reigns  over  Italy  and  Sicily. 
529-34  The  Emperor  Justinian  revises  and  consolidates  the  Roman 

law  and  issues  the  Code  Digest  and  Institutes. 
533  Belisarius,  sent  by  Justinian,  reconquers  Africa  from  the  Van- 
dals for  the  Roman  Empire. 

535-53  Long  war  of  Justinian  against  the  East  Goths  in  Italy :  Italy 
and  Sicily  are  reconquered;  disappearance  of  the  East 
Gothic  nation. 

568  Alboin  leads  the  Lombards  into  Italy,  conquers  the  Northern 

part  of   it  and  establishes   a  monarchy   there;    Lombard 

chieftains  subsequently  found  the  duchies  of  Spoleto  and 

Benevento. 

622  Flight  of  Mohammed  from   Mecca  to  Medina  (Era  of  the 

Hegira). 

622-28  Campaign  of  the  Emperor  Heraclius  against  the  Sassanid 
kings :  defeat  of  the  Persians  and  recovery  of  the  eastern 
Provinces. 


OF  IMPORTANT  EVENTS  xxxiii 

633-52  The  Mohammedan  Arabs  invade  Syria,  conquer  Syria,  Egypt, 
Mesopotamia,  and  Armenia,  and  invade  Asia  Minor. 

638  Pipin  of  Landen,  founder  of  the  Carolingian  house,  rises  to 
power  among  the  Franks  as  Mayor  of  the  Palace. 

688  Pipin  (of  Heristal),  grandson  of  the  first  Pipin,  becomes  virtual 

ruler  of  the  Franks  as  Mayor  of  the  Palace. 

669-96  The  Arabs  invade  North  Africa,  and  destroy  the  Roman  power 
there. 

711  The  Arabs  and  Berbers  invade  Spain,  defeat  Roderich  the  last 
of  the  West  Gothic  kings  in  the  battle  of  the  Guadalete,  and 
in  a  few  years  conquer  the  whole  Iberian  peninsula,  except 
the  mountains  of  Asturias  and  Biscay. 

732  The  Arab  invasions  of  Gaul  are  checked  in  a  battle  near 
Poitiers  by  Charles  Martel,  Frankish  Mayor  of  the  Palace, 
son  of  the  second  Pipin. 

726-32  The  Emperor  Leo  III  (reigning  at  Constantinople)  issues  an 
Edict  forbidding  the  worship  of  images  and  ordering  their 
destruction  in  the  churches.  It  evokes  strong  opposition 
from  the  Roman  church  and  leads  to  a  revolt  of  the  North 
Italian  subjects  of  the  Empire.  The  Lombard  king,  Liud- 
prand,  invades  the  imperial  territories  in  North  Italy.  Pope 
Gregory  II  induces  him  to  withdraw  from  before  Rome. 

741  Pope  Gregory  III,  still  in  conflict  with  the  Emperor  and 
threatened  by  the  Lombards,  appeals  to  Charles  Martel 
and  sends  him  the  keys  of  the  tomb  of  the  Apostles. 

751  With  the  authorization  of  Pope  Zacharias,  Pipin  (the  Short), 
Mayor  of  the  Palace  in  Gaul,  becomes  king  of  the  Franks  in 
the  place  of  the  Merovingian  Childebert  III. 

753  Pope  Stephen  II  asks  help  from  the  Emperor  at  Constantinople 

against  the  Lombard  king  Aistulf,  who  is  threatening  Rome. 

754  Pope  Stephen  goes  to  Gaul  and  crowns  and  anoints  Pipin  as 

king.  Pipin  invades  Italy  and  reduces  Aistulf  to  sub- 
mission. 

756  Pipin,  at  the  call  of  the  Pope,  again  enters  Italy,  overcomes 
the  Lombards,  bestows  on  the  See  of  Rome  the  territories 
belonging  to  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna,  and  receives  the 
title  of  Patrician. 

758  Charles  (the  Great),  son  of  Pipin,  becomes  king  of  the  Franks 
of  Neustria,  and  after  the  death  of  his  brother  Carloman 
(in  771)  king  of  the  Franks  of  Austrasia  also. 


xxxiv  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE 

772-803  Wars  of  Charles  against  the  Saxons,  ending  in  their  submission 

and  enforced  conversion. 

773-4  Charles,  at  the  appeal  of  the  Pope,  who  is  menaced  by  king 
Desiderius,  attacks  and  subjects  the  Lombards,  adding  North 
Italy  to  his  dominions,  and  is  recognized  as  suzerain  of 
Rome. 

778  Expedition  of  Charles  into  Spain :  fight  at  Roncesvalles  be- 
tween his  troops  and  the  Basques. 

794  Charles  presides  in  a  Church  Council  held  at  Frankfort  which 
disapproves  of  Pope  Hadrian's  action  regarding  images. 

797  Irene  deposes  and  blinds  her  son  the  Emperor  Constantine  VI. 

800  CHARLES  is  CROWNED  EMPEROR  AT  ROME. 

805  Charles  defeats  and  reduces  the  Avars. 

810-12  Negotiations  of  Charles  with  the  East  Roman  Emperors  :  they 
ultimately  recognize  him  as  Emperor  and  as  ruler  of  North- 
ern Italy,  except  Venice.  The  south  of  Italy  and  Sicily 
remain  subject  to  Constantinople. 

814  Death  of  Charles :  he  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Lewis,  whom 

he  had  crowned  as  co-Emperor  in  813. 
817-39  Lewis  I  makes  several  divisions  of  his  dominions  among  his 
sons:  quarrels  arise  between  him  and  them  and  between 
the  sons  themselves.  The  administrative  system  estab- 
lished by  Charles  falls  to  pieces.  Norse  and  Danish  pirates 
devastate  the  coasts  of  Germany  and  Gaul. 

841  Battle  of  Fontanetum  between  Lewis  and  Charles,  the  younger 
sons  of  Lewis  I  (who  had  died  in  840)  and  their  brother  the 
Emperor  Lothar ;  defeat  of  Lothar. 

843  Partition  treaty  of  Verdun  between  the  three  sons  of  Lewis  I. 
The  East  Frankish  kingdom  assigned  to  Lewis  (the  Ger- 
man) is  the  origin  of  the  German  kingdom  of  later  days. 

855  Lewis  II,  reigning  in  Italy  since  844,  becomes  Emperor. 
Attacks  of  the  Saracens  upon  Italy. 

866  Dispute  between  Pope  Nicholas  I  and  Photius,  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople :  it  ends  in  a  schism  which  divides  the  two 
churches. 

876  Charles  the  Bald,  king  of  the  West  Franks,  is  crowned  Em- 

peror at  Rome.     He  dies  next  year. 

877  Boso,  husband  of  Irmingard  (daughter  of  the  Emperor  Lewis 

II),  founds  the  kingdom  of  (Cisjurane)  Burgundy  or  Aries 
and  is  recognized  as  king  by  Charles  the  Bald. 


OF   IMPORTANT  EVENTS  xxxv 

888  Death  of  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fat,  who  had  (during  his 
reign  of  three  years)  reunited  the  dominions  of  Charles  the 
Great.  After  him  they  fall  asunder,  and  the  Carolingian 
Empire  disappears.  Arnulf,  duke  of  Carinthia  (an  illegiti- 
mate descendant  of  Charles),  is  chosen  king  of  the  East 
Franks  (subsequently  Emperor),  and  is  succeeded  by  his 
son  Lewis  the  Child,  who  dies  unmarried,  in  911.  Rudolf 
founds  the  kingdom  of  Transjurane  Burgundy.  West  France 
passes  to  Odo  (grand-uncle  of  Hugh  Capet,  who  becomes 
king  in  987).  Odo  admits  the  suzerainty  of  Arnulf. 

891  Guido  of  Spoleto,  having  overcome  Berengar  of  Friuli,  seizes 
the  throne  of  Italy  and  is  crowned  Emperor  at  Rome. 

894  Arnulf  enters  Italy,  drives  Guido  from  Pavia,  and  is  crowned 
king  of  Italy. 

896  Arnulf  marches  to  Rome  and  is  crowned  Emperor. 
901-25  Repeated  invasions  of  Germany  and  Italy  by  the  Magyars: 
the  Germans  pay  a  sort  of  tribute  to  them  from  925  to  933 : 
raids  continue  in  Italy. 

91 1  Conrad,  duke  of  Franconia,  is  chosen  king  of  the  East  Franks. 

919  Henry  (the  Fowler),  duke  of  the  Saxons,  is,  on  Conrad's  death, 
chosen  king  of  the  East  Franks  or  Germans.  He  was, 
through  females,  great-great-grandson  of  Charles  the  Great, 
and  a  man  of  proved  ability  and  uprightness. 

928  Henry  the  Fowler  attacks  the  Slavs  beyond  the  Elbe,  defeats 
them,  and  constructs  a  fort  at  Brannibor,  which  grows  into 
the  March  of  Brandenburg :  he  makes  the  Czechs  of  Bohe- 
mia his  tributaries. 

933  Henry,  having  organized  and  trained  his  forces,  attacks  and 
defeats  the  Magyar  invaders  in  Saxony,  and  strengthens  the 
eastern  frontiers  of  Germany. 

936  Death  of  Henry  :  his  son  Otto  (the  Great)  is  chosen  to  succeed 
him  as  king  of  the  East  Franks,  and  is  crowned  at  Aachen. 

951  Adelheid  of  Burgundy,  widow  of  Lothar  king  of  Italy,  asks 
help  from  Otto  against  Berengar  king  of  Italy :  Otto  relieves 
the  castle  of  Canosa,  where  she  had  taken  refuge,  marries 
her,  and  makes  Berengar  his  vassal. 

955  Great  defeat  of  the  Magyars  by  Otto  on  the  Lech,  near  Augs- 
burg. He  conquers  the  Slavs  between  the  Elbe  and  the  Oder, 
and  strengthens  the  East  March,  afterwards  the  principality 
of  Austria. 


xxxvi  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

962  Otto,  having  deposed  Berengar  and  taken  to  himself  the  king- 
dom of  Italy,  is  crowned  Emperor  at  Rome  by  Pope  John  XII. 

972  The  East  Roman  Emperor  John  Tzimiskes  makes  peace  with 

Otto  I  and  recognizes  his  title:  Theophano  (daughter  of 
the  Emperor  Romanus  II)  is  married  at  Rome  to  Otto  I's 
son  Otto  (afterwards  the  Emperor  Otto  II)  :  both  are  crowned 
by  the  Pope. 

973  Otto  the  Great  dies  and  is  succeeded  by  Otto  II,  in  whose 

reign  the  disorders  of  Germany,  repressed  by  Otto  I,  grow 
worse,  and  the  Slavs  again  harry  the  north-eastern  borders. 

982  War  of  Otto  II  against  the  Saracens  in  Southern  Italy :  he  is 

defeated  and  escapes  with  difficulty. 

983  Death  of  Otto  II :  he  is  succeeded  by  his  only  son  Otto  III, 

who  had  been  chosen  in  his  father's  lifetime :  the  Empress 
dowager  Theophano  acts  as  regent  till  her  death  in  991. 
987  Lewis  V,  king  of  the  West  Franks,  the  last  of  the  Carolingian 
line,  dies  and  is  succeeded  by  Hugh  Capet,  duke  of  France. 
996  Otto  III   marches  to   Rome,  makes  his  cousin  Bruno  Pope 
(Gregory  V)  and  is  crowned  by  him.     Subsequent  revolts 
of  the  Romans  against  him  are  suppressed,  and  on  the  death 
of  Gregory  V  he  procures  the  election  of  Gerbert  as  Pope 
(Sylvester  II)  in  999. 

looo  The  Magyars  having  now  embraced  Christianity,  Otto  gives 
his  cousin  Gisela  in  marriage  to  their  king  Stephen,  and 
sends  him  the  crown  thereafter  known  as  the  crown  of  St. 
Stephen. 

1002  Death  of  Otto  III  at  Paterno  (under  Mount  Soracte,  near 
Rome)  :  his  second  cousin  Henry  duke  of  Bavaria  (great- 
grandson  of  Henry  the  Fowler)  succeeds,  after  some  diffi- 
culty, in  getting  himself  chosen  king  of  Germany  by  the 
Bavarians,  Lotharingians,  Swabians,  and  Saxons  succes- 
sively, and  is  crowned  at  Aachen. 

1004  Henry  enters  Italy,  defeats  Ardoin  marquis  of  Ivrea  who  had 
made  himself  king  there,  and  is  crowned  king  at  Pavia. 

1014  Henry  re-enters  Italy,  meeting  with  little  opposition,  although 
some  of  the  cities  had  continued  to  recognize  Ardoin,  and 
is  crowned  Emperor  at  Rome  by  Pope  Benedict  VIII.  The 
kingdom  of  Italy  thenceforward  goes  with  the  Empire. 

1024  Henry  II  (the  Saint)  dies  (he  was  canonized  in  1152  by  Pope 
Eugenius  III,  and  his  wife  Cunigunda  was  subsequently 


OF  IMPORTANT  EVENTS  xxxvii 

canonized  by  Pope  Innocent  III)  :  a  great  assembly  of  the 
German  princes  held  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  below 
Worms  chooses  Conrad  duke  of  Franconia  (surnamed  the 
Salic)  to  be  king.  He  was  a  descendant  in  the  female  line 
of  Otto  the  Great. 

1026  Conrad   (II  of  Germany)   enters  Italy,  where   attempts  had 

been  made  to  set  up  members  of  the  French  royal  house  as 
king  :  he  is  crowned  king  of  Italy  at  Pavia. 

1027  Conrad  is  crowned  Emperor  at  Rome,  in  the  presence  of  Cnut 

king  of  England  and  Denmark  and  of  Rudolf  king  of  Bur- 
gundy, who  escort  him  to  his  lodgings.  Quarrel  between 
the  German  troops  and  the  Romans  in  which  many  of  the 
latter  are  slain. 

1032-3  Death  of  Rudolf  king  of  Burgundy :  Conrad  II  obtains  the 
kingdom  in  pursuance  of  arrangements  made  with  Rudolf, 
and  is  recognized  by  the  nobles  and  bishops.  The  practical 
independence  of  the  great  lay  vassals  of  the  Empire  and 
prelates  in  the  Saone  and  Rhone  valleys,  and  in  the  country 
between  the  Jura  and  the  Pennine  Alps,  dates  from  this  time, 
because  these  districts  lay  far  from  the  centre  of  German 
power. 

1035-8  Troubles  in  Italy:  Heribert  archbishop  of  Milan  resists  the 
Emperor :  Conrad  II  fails  to  reduce  the  rebels,  but  at  Rome 
restores  Pope  Benedict  IX,  whom  the  Romans  had  expelled. 
He  loses  great  part  of  his  army  by  disease. 

1039  Death  of  Conrad  II :  he  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Henry  (III 
of  Germany),  surnamed  The  Black,  who  had  been  chosen 
king  of  Germany  in  his  lifetime. 

1046  Henry  III  enters  Italy  :  is  crowned  at  Milan,  deposes  two  rival 
Popes  and  obtains  the  resignation  of  a  third,  secures  the 
election  of  Pope  Clement  II,  and  is  crowned  Emperor  by 
him  at  Rome. 

1041  Norman  adventurers  under  the  sons  of  Tancred  of  Hauteville 
begin  to  carry  on  war  against  the  East  Roman  Empire  in 
Southern  Italy,  and  ultimately  (1071)  win  the  whole 
country. 

1051  Dispute  between  Pope  Leo  IX  and  the  Patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople, the  latter  refusing  to  admit  the  superiority  of  the 
See  of  Rome.  A  schism  results  which  lasts  till  the  Council 
of  Florence  in  1438-9. 


xxxviii  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

1053  The  Normans  defeat  and  capture  Pope  Leo  IX,  who  had 
marched  against  them  ;  they  presently  set  the  Pope  free,  and 
restore  the  lands  taken  from  the  See  of  Rome.  In  1059 
Robert  Wiscard,  now  the  chief  of  the  Normans,  who  had 
owned  himself  vassal  to  the  Chair  of  St.  Peter  for  his  con- 
quests in  Calabria  and  Apulia,  is  created  by  Pope  Nicholas  II 
duke  of  Apulia  and  Calabria. 

1056  Death  of  Henry  III :  he  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Henry,  then 
six  years  of  age,  who  had  been  already  chosen  and  crowned 
king. 

1059  Pope  Nicholas  II  lays  down  new  rules  for  papal  elections,  vest- 
ing the  primary  choice  in  the  cardinals,  while  reserving  the 
rights  of  the  clergy  and  people  of  Rome,  and  of  the  Em- 
peror Henry  IV,  to  give  their  consent. 

1071  The  East  Roman  Emperor  Romanus  Diogenes  is  defeated 
and  captured  at  Manzikert  by  the  Turkish  Sultan  Alp  Arslan  : 
the  Turks  begin  the  conquest  of  Asia  Minor. 

1073-4  Great  revolt  of  the  Saxons  against  the  Emperor,  who  after  a 
struggle  overcomes  them.  They  revolt  again,  and  peace  is 
not  restored  till  1097. 

1075  Quarrel  of  Henry  with  Pope  Gregory  VII  (elected  in  1073) 
over  the  investiture  of  clerics.  The  Pope  excommunicates 
the  Emperor  (1076). 

1077  Henry  submits  to  Gregory  at  Canosa  and  is  absolved,  but  soon 
after  strife  is  renewed ;  a  rival  Emperor  (Rudolf  of  Swabia) 
is  chosen  in  Germany  against  Henry,  and  civil  war  follows 
there,  while  an  anti-pope  is  elected  against  Gregory. 

1081  Henry  enters  Italy,  besieges  and  after  three  years  captures 
Rome  (except  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  where  Gregory  VII 
holds  out)  :  he  is  crowned  Emperor  by  his  anti-pope. 

1084  Robert  Wiscard,  summoned  by  Gregory,  enters  Rome;  it  is 
subsequently  sacked  by  his  troops  ;  destruction  and  ultimate 
desolation  of  the  parts  of  the  city  lying  on  the  Aventine  and 
Coelian  hills :  Gregory  returns  with  Robert  to  South  Italy, 
and  dies  at  Salerno  (1085). 

On  the  death  of  Rudolf,  Hermann  of  Luxemburg  is  set  up 
against  Henry  as  ruler  in  Germany;  he  abandons  the 
contest  in  1088. 

1090  Conquest  of  Sicily  from  the  Muslims  by  the  Normans  is  com- 
pleted ;  South  Italy  and  Sicily  are  ultimately  erected  into  a 


OF  IMPORTANT   EVENTS  xxxix 

kingdom.     Roger  is  crowned  king  of  Sicily  in  1130:  Pope 
Innocent  II  yields  South  Italy  by  a  treaty  in  1139. 

1096  Beginning  of  the  First  Crusade  :  the  Crusaders  take  Jerusalem 
in  1099,  and  make  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  duke  of  Lorraine, 
king. 

1105-6  Henry  IV  is  dethroned  by  his  second  son,  Henry,  who,  sup- 
ported by  the  papal  party,  becomes  king  as  Henry  V,  and  is 
crowned  at  Mentz.  (Henry  IV  dies  in  1106.) 

II II  Henry  V  descends  into  Italy,  enters  Rome  to  be  crowned, 
seizes  Pope  Paschal  II  (upon  the  failure  of  an  agreement  by 
which  the  Church  was  to  surrender  its  possessions,  and 
Henry  consequently  his  right  of  investiture)  keeps  him  and 
the  cardinals  prisoners,  and  extorts  a  treaty  admitting  the 
Emperor's  right  of  clerical  investiture.  He  is  then  crowned 
by  the  Pope,  and  returns  to  Germany.  The  Pope,  when 
released,  finds  that  the  clergy  will  not  accept  the  treaty  and 
is  obliged  to  disavow  it.  The  contest  over  the  investiture 
of  ecclesiastics  by  laymen  continues. 

1 1 22  Concordat  of  Worms  between  Pope  Calixtus  II  and  the  Em- 
peror, by  which  the  question  of  investitures  is  compromised. 

1125  Henry  V  dies,  leaving  no  male  heir:  Lothar,  duke  of  Saxony, 
is  chosen  to  succeed  him.  A  quarrel  breaks  out  between 
Lothar  and  Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen,  duke  of  Swabia, 
which  is  the  origin  of  the  long  strife  of  the  houses  of  Welf 
(so  called)  and  Waiblingen  (Waiblingen  was  a  small  town 
belonging  to  the  Hohenstaufen,  whose  name  is  said  to  have 
been  on  one  occasion  used  as  a  battle-cry).  Conrad,  duke 
of  Franconia,  brother  of  Frederick  of  Swabia,  disputes  the 
throne  with  Lothar,  enters  Italy,  and  is  crowned  at  Monza 
and  Milan.  The  hostility  of  the  Pope,  however,  prevents 
him  from  maintaining  authority  there,  and  he  and  Frederick 
ultimately  submit. 

1133  Lothar  II  is  crowned  Emperor  in  Rome  by  Pope  Innocent  II. 
He  had  held  the  Pope's  stirrup  at  an  interview  in  Germany, 
and  desiring  papal  support  he  took  an  oath  to  defend  the 
Holy  See,  and  acknowledged  papal  rights  over  part  of  the 
territories  that  had  belonged  to  the  Countess  Matilda.  This 
was  afterwards  represented  as  a  recognition  of  papal  suze- 
rainty;  but  Lothar  maintained  the  rights  secured  by  the 
Concordat  of  Worms. 


xl  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

1138  Lothar  II,  after  a  successful  war  against  the  Normans  of  South 
Italy,  dies  in  Tyrol:  Conrad  of  Hohenstaufen,  duke  of 
Swabia,  is  chosen  king  in  his  stead,  to  the  displeasure  of  the 
Saxons  and  Bavarians,  with  whom  he  soon  finds  himself  at 
war. 

1144  Revolt  of  the  Romans  against  Pope  Innocent  II:  preaching 
of  Arnold  of  Brescia  :  republican  institutions  are  reorganized 
and  envoys  sent  to  Conrad  III  to  obtain  his  support. 

1146  Conrad  III  starts  on  the  Second  Crusade,  but  returns  having 
lost  his  army  and  effected  little. 

1152  Death  of  Conrad,  who  had  never  carried  out  his  intention 
of  receiving  the  imperial  crown  at  Rome.  His  nephew 
Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen,  duke  of  Swabia,  is  chosen  king 
and  crowned  at  Aachen  with  the  general  approval  of  the 
nation. 

1154  Frederick  enters  Italy,  where  he  finds  Milan  and  other  Lom- 

bard cities  disobedient. 

1155  Frederick  I  meets  Pope  Hadrian  IV  outside  Rome,  and  after 

some  resistance  consents  to  hold  the  stirrup  for  him,  and  at 
his  demand  seizes  and  puts  to  death  Arnold  of  Brescia. 
He  is  crowned  by  the  Pope  in  St.  Peter's,  but  is  unable  to 
force  his  way  into  Rome. 

1157  Diet  at  Besancon,  where  the  great  Burgundian  vassals  do 
homage  to  the  Emperor.  Indignation  at  the  assertion  made 
by  the  papal  legate  that  the  Empire  was  held  from  the 
See  of  Rome. 

1158-62  Frederick  carries  on  war  with  the  recalcitrant  Lombard  cities 

and  destroys  Milan.     Diet  at  Roncaglia. 

1160  Double  election  to  the  Papacy  of  Alexander  III  and  Victor  IV. 
Frederick  sides  with  Victor.  Long  conflict  between  Alex- 
ander and  the  Empire,  the  Pope  supporting  the  North 
Italian  cities  against  Frederick.  Alexander,  at  first  driven 
to  take  refuge  in  France,  returns  to  Rome  (1165)  and 
deposes  the  Emperor. 

1167-76  Further  strife  in  Italy,  ending  with  the  defeat  of  Frederick's 

army  by  the  allied  cities  at  Legnano. 

1177  Reconciliation  of  Frederick  and  Pope  Alexander  III  at  Venice. 

1180-1  Henry  (the  Lion)  duke  of  Saxony,  who  had  failed  to  support 

Frederick  in  the  campaign  of  Legnano,  is  condemned  by  the 

Diet  at  Wurzburg  to  lose  his  possessions  :   he  resists  by 


OF   IMPORTANT   EVENTS  xli 

force  of  arms,  but  is  ultimately  obliged  to  submit,  losing  his 
duchies  of  Saxony  and  Bavaria,  but  receiving  back  some 
part  of  his  estates. 

1183  Peace  of  Constance  between  Frederick  and  the  confederated 
Lombard  cities :  they  secure  internal  self-government  and 
the  right  of  making  peace  and  war,  and  are  thenceforward 
practically  independent. 

1186  Marriage  of  Henry,  eldest  son  of  Frederick,  to  Constantia, 
daughter  of  Roger  II  king  of  Sicily,  and  heiress  of  the 
Norman  kingdom. 

1189  Frederick  leads  a  German  host  (estimated  at  100,000  men) 
on  the  Third  Crusade.  After  traversing  Bulgaria  and  Asia 
Minor,  he  is  drowned  in  the  river  Kalykadnus  in  Cilicia,  in 
1190  ;  and  is  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son,  Henry  VI,  who 
had  been  already  (as  a  child)  chosen  king  and  crowned 
at  Aachen. 

1189  Death  of  William  the  Good,  king  of  Sicily.     The  Sicilian 

kingdom  and  South  Italy  are  claimed  by  Henry  in  right 
of  his  wife :  but  he  is  resisted  by  Tancred  (illegitimate  son 
of  Roger,  son  of  Roger  1 1),  and  does  not  master  Sicily  till  1 194. 

1190  Foundation  of  the  Teutonic  Order  of  Knights  by  Frederick 

(son  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  I)  while  commanding  the 
German  Crusaders  after  his  father's  death. 

1191  Henry  VI  is  crowned  Emperor  at  Rome. 

1194  Richard  I  king  of  England  (made  prisoner  in  1192  by  the 
duke  of  Austria)  surrenders  the  kingdom  of  England  to  the 
Emperor  and  receives  it  back  as  a  fief  on  his  liberation. 

1197  Death  of  Henry  VI  at  Messina  :  he  had  caused  his  son 
Frederick,  a  child  of  three,  to  be  chosen  king  two  years 
previously. 

1 198-1208  Disputed  election.  Philip  of  Hohenstaufen,  duke  of  Swabia, 
brother  of  Henry  VI,  had  at  first  tried  to  rule  as  regent  on 
behalf  of  his  infant  nephew  Frederick,  but  when  this  proves 
impossible  in  face  of  the  opposition  of  Pope  Innocent  III, 
he  secures  his  own  election  by  a  large  majority  of  the  great 
princes.  The  Pope,  however,  raises  up  a  party  against  him 
and  procures  the  election  of  Otto  of  Brunswick,  son  of  Henry 
the  Lion  (late  duke  of  Saxony)  and  of  Matilda  (sister  of 
Richard  I  of  England).  Civil  war  in  Germany,  terminated 
by  the  murder  of  Philip  in  1208. 


xlii  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

1204  A  French  army  and  Venetian  fleet  starting  for  the  Fourth 
Crusade  besiege  and  take  Constantinople,  and  set  up 
Baldwin  as  East  Roman  Emperor.  The  East  Romans 
found  an  empire  at  Nicaea  which  lasts  till  1261,  when  they 
recover  Constantinople. 

1208  Otto,  on  his  rival's  death,  is  formally  re-elected  Emperor, 
and  next  year  visits  Rome,  and  is  crowned  Emperor  by 
Innocent  III. 

1210-18  Otto  IV  quarrels  with  Innocent,  who  encourages  Frederick 
(son  of  Henry  VI)  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  party 
in  Germany,  which  is  hostile  to  Otto  IV.  Frederick  is 
elected  king  and  crowned  at  Mentz  (1212)  and  at  Aachen 
(1215).  Otto  IV  retires  to  his  dominions  in  Brunswick, 
and  dies  (1218)  after  an  unsuccessful  war  against  Philip 
of  France. 

1216  The  Order  of  St.  Dominic  is  recognized  by  the  Pope,  and  in 
1223  the  Order  of  St.  Francis  is  also  recognized. 

1 220  Frederick  II,  by  a  solemn  act  (subsequently  called  a  Prag- 
matic Sanction)  issued  in  a  Diet  at  Frankfort,  extends  large 
powers  to  the  ecclesiastical  princes.  A  similar  Sanction 
some  years  later  extends  the  privileges  of  the  secular 
princes.  He  is  crowned  emperor  at  Rome.  Disputes 
soon  after  arise  between  him  and  the  Pope,  nominally 
arising  out  of  his  delay  in  setting  out  on  a  crusade. 

1226  The  Lombard  cities  renew  their  league  against  the  Emperor. 

1227  Open  breach  between  Frederick  and  Pope  Gregory  IX,  who 

excommunicates  him. 

1228-9  Frederick  II  sets  out  on  his  Crusade,  reaches  Jerusalem,  and 
returns,  having  made  a  favourable  treaty  with  the  Sultan  of 
Egypt. 

1228-40  Establishment  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  on  the  eastern  frontier 
of  Germany  and  conquest  by  them  of  the  Lithuanians  of 
Old  Prussia. 

1230  Reconciliation  of  the  Pope  and  Frederick  II,  who  is  absolved. 
1235  War  between  the  Emperor  and  the  Lombard  League,  the  Pope 
supporting  the  cities.    It  lasts  during  the  rest  of  Frederick  IPs 
reign. 

1235-40  Strife  of  Gregory  IX  and  the  Emperor,  whom  he  excom- 
municates (1239),  then  preaches  a  crusade  against  him, 
and  tries  to  stir  up  an  insurrection  in  Germany. 


OF  IMPORTANT   EVENTS  xliii 

1241  Beginnings  of  the  Hanseatic  League  of  cities. 

1242  A  Mongol  host  invades  Germany  and  is  defeated  in  Moravia 

and  Austria. 

1243  Election  of  Pope  Innocent  IV  (a  teacher  of  law  at  Bologna), 

who  soon  resumes  hostilities  against  the  Emperor,  and  in 
Councils  held  at  Lyons  (1244-5)  excommunicates  and 
deposes  him,  and  excites  some  of  the  German  princes  to 
set  up  Henry  of  Thuringia,  and  afterwards  (1247)  William 
of  Holland,  as  pretenders  to  the  crown.  William  is  crowned 
at  Aachen,  and  maintains  his  pretensions  till  his  death  in 
1256.  Anarchy  in  Germany. 

1250  Frederick  II,  who  had  been  constantly  engaged  in  fighting  the 
Guelf  party  in  Italy,  dies  in  Apulia.  He  is  succeeded  by  his 
son  Conrad  IV,  who  had  been  chosen  king  in  his  father's 
lifetime  (1237). 

1250-4  Conrad  IV,  excommunicated  by  Pope  Innocent,  enters  Italy 
and  maintains  the  war  there  against  the  cities  and  the  papal 
forces,  while  William  of  Holland  is  generally  recognized  in 
northern  and  middle  Germany.  Both  there  and  in  Italy 
anarchy  continues.  There  has  been,  however,  during  Fred- 
erick's reign  a  great  increase  in  the  population  and  wealth  of 
the  German  cities,  which  had  been  favoured  by  Frederick  I. 

1254  Death  of  Conrad  IV :  the  rights  to  the  German  territories  of 
the  Hohenstaufen  and  to  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  pass  to  his 
son  Conrad  (Conradin),  a  child  of  two,  while  his  illegiti- 
mate brother  Manfred  continues  the  war  in  South  Italy 
against  the  Pope  and  the  Guelfs,  or  papal  party,  till  his  death 
in  the  battle  of  Benevento  in  1266. 

1256-7  An  interregnum  follows  the  death  of  William  of  Holland, 
which  ends  with  the  double  election  of  Richard  earl  of 
Cornwall  (brother  of  the  English  king  Henry  III),  and,  by 
another  section  of  the  electors,  a  little  later,  of  Alfonso  X, 
king  of  Castile.  Richard  crosses  to  Germany  and  is  crowned 
at  Aachen.  Alfonso  remains  in  Spain.  Richard  retains  the 
title  of  Emperor  till  his  death  in  1271,  but  is  only  thrice  in 
Germany  and  never  exercises  effective  authority  there. 

1261  Michael  Palaeologus  recovers  Constantinople  from  the  Latin 
Emperor  and  re-establishes  an  Orthodox  dynasty  there. 

1268  Conradin,  last  male  descendant  of  the  Swabian  emperors,  enters 
Italy  with  a  German  army,  but  is  defeated  at  Tagliacozzo 


xliv  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE 

by  the  army  of  Charles  of  Anjou  and  beheaded  at 
Naples. 

1273  Rudolf  count  of  Hapsburg  is  chosen  king  and  crowned   at 

Aachen :  he  conciliates  the  Pope,  and  never  enters  Italy. 
1277-82  Rudolf  deprives  Ottocar  king  of  Bohemia  of  the  Austrian  terri- 
tories and  after  a  time  bestows  them,  as  well  as  Styria  and 
Carniola,  on  his  sons,  laying  the  foundation  of  the  territorial 
power  of  the  house  of  Hapsburg. 

1291  Death  of  Rudolf.  He  had  failed  to  secure  the  fixing  of  the 
imperial  crown  as  hereditary  in  his  house,  and  even  the  elec- 
tion of  his  son  Albert ;  the  electors  choose  Adolf  count  of 
Nassau,  a  man  of  ability  and  energy  but  of  slender  resources. 

1298  A  revolt  organized  by  Albert  of  Hapsburg  and  the  archbishop 
of  Mentz  breaks  out.  Adolf  is  deposed,  but  resists :  he  is 
killed  by  the  hand  of  Albert  in  battle  at  Gollheim  near 
Worms,  having  never  entered  Italy  to  receive  the  imperial 
crown. 

Albert  of  Hapsburg,  duke  of  Austria,  is  chosen  king  and 
crowned  at  Aachen :  Pope  Boniface  VIII  refuses  to  recognize 
him. 

1302  Dante  Alighieri  with  the  party  of  the  White  Guelfs  is  driven 

into  exile  from  Florence  :  he  writes  his  De  Monarchia  prob- 
ably a  little  before,  or  in,  1311  or  1312,  and  dies  at  Ravenna 
in  1321. 

1303  Boniface  VIII,  being  engaged  in  a  fierce  strife  with  Philip  IV 

of  France,  becomes  reconciled  to  Albert  and  invites  him  to 
come  to  Rome  to  be  crowned :  which  however  Albert  never 
does.  Boniface  is  seized  at  Anagni  by  an  armed  band  in  the 
service  of  Philip  IV  of  France,  and  dies  a  few  days  afterwards. 

1305  Clement  V  (a  Gascon  by  birth)  becomes  Pope.  Moved  by 
the  constant  rebellions  and  disorders  of  Rome  for  a  long 
time  previously,  he  removes  the  Papal  Court  to  Avignon, 
where  it  remains  for  seventy  years. 
1307-8  League  of  the  inhabitants  of  Schwytz  Uri  and  Unterwalden  to 
defend  themselves  against  the  oppression  of  the  officers  of 
Albert  of  Hapsburg:  it  is  the  germ  of  the  Swiss  Confedera- 
tion. Albert  marches  against  the  Swiss,  but  is  murdered  on 
the  banks  of  the  Reuss  by  his  nephew  John  in  1308. 

1308  Henry  count  of  Luxemburg  is  chosen  king :  he  presently 
secures  the  kingdom  of  Bohemia  for  his  family :  and  he 


OF   IMPORTANT   EVENTS  xlv 

recognizes  the  exemption  of  the  three  Swiss  Cantons  from 
the  feudal  rights  of  the  counts  of  Hapsburg. 

1310  Henry  VII,  summoned  to  put  an  end  to  the  disorders  and 
civil  wars  of  Italy,  where  most  of  the  cities  had  fallen  under 
the  dominion  of  tyrants,  crosses  the  Alps,  is  crowned  king 
of  Italy,  fights  his  way  into  Rome,  where  he  is  resisted  by  a 
faction  of  the  nobles  and  by  the  troops  of  the  king  of  Naples, 
and  is  crowned  Emperor  by  the  legates  of  Pope  Clement  V. 
He  carries  on  war  against  the  Guelfs  of  Italy  till  his  death 
in  1313. 

1313-14  Double  election  of  Lewis  duke  of  Bavaria  and  Frederick  duke 
of  Austria,  followed  by  a  civil  war  between  them. 

1315  The  Swiss  Confederates  defeat  the  Austrian  troops  at  Mor- 
garten,  and  thereby  secure  their  freedom. 

1322  Lewis  of  Bavaria  defeats  Frederick  at  Muhldorf  and  takes  him 
prisoner:  the  civil  war  however  continues  till  1325. 

1324  Open  breach  between  Pope  John  XXII  and  Lewis  IV.  John 
excommunicates  him.  Lewis  appeals  to  a  General  Council. 
Lewis  obtains  the  support  of  the  English  philosopher  Will- 
iam of  Ockham  and  other  Franciscans,  and  of  Marsilius  of 
Padua :  they  write  treatises  against  the  Pope. 

1327-8  Lewis  enters  Italy,  is  welcomed  at  Rome  by  the  citizens ;  is 
crowned  Emperor  by  the  Syndics  whom  they  appoint  for  the 
purpose.  In  a  solemn  meeting  of  the  people  he  deposes 
John  XXII,  and  crowns  a  Franciscan  friar  whom  the  people 
had  chosen  Pope.  Finding  the  Romans  fickle  and  his  forces 
insufficient,  he  leaves  Rome,  and,  in  1329,  returns  to  Ger- 
many, while  Rome  submits  to  the  Pope.  Lewis  subsequently 
endeavours,  but  in  vain,  to  make  peace  with  John  XXII,  and 
afterwards  with  Benedict  XII. 

1338  The  Germanic  Diet  at  Frankfort  solemnly  protests  against  the 
pretensions  of  the  Pope  to  supremacy  over  the  Empire  and 
declares  that  the  Empire  is  held  from  God  alone.  The  Elec- 
tors at  Rhense  issue  a  similar  declaration. 

1343  Pope  Clement  VI  renews  the  decrees  of  his  predecessors  against 
Lewis  IV  ;  Lewis  sends  envoys  to  Avignon  ;  but  the  Pope's 
exorbitant  demands  are  refused  by  the  Germanic  Diet :  the 
Pope  excommunicates  Lewis,  and  sets  up  Charles  king  of 
Bohemia  as  rival  to  the  throne.  Charles  is  chosen  king  by 
the  three  ecclesiastical  and  by  two  lay  electors. 


xlvi  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE 

1347-54  Cola  di  Rienzo  effects  a  revolution  at  Rome,  and  is  named 
Tribune  with  the  assent  of  the  papal  legate :  he  falls  from 
power  after  some  months,  escapes  to  the  Apennines,'  goes  to 
Bohemia,  is  imprisoned  there  by  the  Emperor  Charles  IV, 
and  sent  to  Avignon,  then  sent  back  to  Rome  by  Pope 
Clement  VI  with  limited  powers,  and  is  killed  in  a  popular 
outbreak  in  1354. 

1347  Death  of  Lewis  IV :  Charles  king  of  Bohemia  (grandson  of 
the  Emperor  Henry  VII)  is  opposed  by  several  of  the  elec- 
tors, who  choose  in  succession  king  Edward  III  of  England, 
who  refuses  (his  Parliament  objecting),  Frederick  marquis 
of  Meissen  (whom  Charles  buys  off),  and  Gunther  of 
Schwartzburg,  who  accepts,  but  dies  soon  after.  Charles 
then  has  himself  re-chosen  and  re-crowned  at  Aachen. 

1354  Charles  is  crowned  king  of  Italy  at  Milan  and  afterwards  Em- 
peror at  Rome  by  the  Cardinal-bishop  of  Ostia,  commissioned 
thereto  by  the  Pope.  He  shews  himself  submissive  to  the 
Pope,  quits  Rome  forthwith  and  returns  promptly  across  the 
Alps. 

1356  Charles  IV  promulgates  in  a  Diet  held  at  Nlirnberg  the  famous 
Constitution  called  the  Golden  Bull  (Aurea  Bulla),  which 
settles  the  composition  of  the  Electoral  College,  the  proceed- 
ings in  imperial  elections,  and  the  privileges  of  the  electors. 

1365  Charles  IV  visits  the  Pope  at  Avignon  and  is  crowned  king  of 
Burgundy.  (It  is  the  last  Burgundian  coronation.)  He 
also  visits  the  king  of  France. 

1378  Death  of  Charles  IV.      His  son  Wenzel  king  of  Bohemia, 

elected  and  crowned  two  years  before,  succeeds  him. 
The  election  of  two  rival  Popes,  Urban  VI  and  Clement  VII, 
leads  to  the  Great  Schism  of  the  West,  which  lasts  till  the 
Council  of  Constance. 

1384-8  War  breaks  out  between  the  League  of  cities  (formed  in 
South  Germany  some  years  before)  and  the  League  of 
princes :  general  disorder  in  Germany. 

1395  Wenzel  confers  the  title  of  Duke  of  Milan  on  Gian  Galeazzo 
Visconti,  tyrant  of  that  city. 

1400  Wenzel's  neglect  of  his  imperial  duties  and  dissolute  habits 
having  provoked  much  displeasure,  especially  that  of  the 
clergy,  who  resent  some  of  his  ecclesiastical  measures,  four 
electors  (the  three  Rhenish  archbishops  and  the  Count 


OF   IMPORTANT   EVENTS  xlvii 

Palatine)  pronounce  him  to  be  deposed,  and  choose  Rupert 
(of  Wittelsbach),  Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine :  he  is 
crowned  at  Cologne,  and  recognized  over  most  of  Germany, 
but  Wenzel  retains  his  title  and  the  kingdom  of  Bohemia 
till  1411,  when  he  makes  way  for  his  brother  Sigismund. 

1409  Council  of  Pisa  summoned  to  endeavour  to  put  an  end  to  the 

Great  Schism. 

1410  Death  of  Rupert,  who,  like  Wenzel,  had  never  been  crowned 

at  Rome,  though  he  had  made  an  (unfortunate)  expedition 
into  Italy  in  1401. 

1410-11  Disputed  election  of  Sigismund  king  of  Hungary  (brother  of 
Wenzel)  and  of  Jobst  margrave  of  Moravia  (cousin  of 
Wenzel).  Death  of  Jobst:  Sigismund  is  again  chosen  and 
(in  1414)  crowned  at  Aachen. 

1414  Meeting  of  the  Council  of  Constance:  it  burns  John  Huss 
(although  Sigismund  had  given  him  a  safe-conduct),  de- 
poses the  rival  Popes  John  XXIII  and  Benedict  XIII,  pro- 
cures the  abdication  of  a  third  rival  Pope,  Gregory  XII, 
secures  the  election  of  a  new  Pope,  Martin  V,  and  breaks  up 
in  1418. 

1415-17  Sigismund  confers  the  Electorate  of  Brandenburg  on  Frederick 
of  Hohenzollern,  Burggrave  of  Niirnberg  (ancestor  of  the 
present  house  of  Prussia). 

1431  Sigismund  enters  Italy,  is  crowned  king  at  Milan  and  Emperor 
at  Rome  (1433). 

1437  Death  of  Sigismund,  who  had  done  something  to  restore  the 

credit  of  the  Empire,  but  had  not  recovered  any  of  its  power. 

1438  Albert  of  Hapsburg,  duke  of  Austria,  is  elected  king  of  the 

Romans,  and  soon  afterwards  becomes  king  of  Hungary  and 
Bohemia. 

1438-9  A  Council  held  first  at  Ferrara,  then  at  Florence,  is  attended 
by  the  East  Roman  Emperor  John  Palaeologus  :  it  effects  a 
nominal  reconciliation  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches. 
Subsequent  efforts  of  the  Easterns  to  obtain  armed  help 
from  the  West  against  the  Turks  prove  ineffective. 

1439  Death  of  Albert  II.     Frederick  of  Hapsburg,  duke  of  Styria, 

is  elected  to  succeed  him. 

1452  Frederick  III  is  crowned  Emperor  at  Rome.      It  is  the  last 

imperial  coronation  there. 

1453  Constantinople  taken   by  the  Turks.      END  OF  THE   EAST 


' 


xlviii  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

ROMAN  EMPIRE.     The  (Christian)   Empire  of  Trebizond 
lingers  on  till  1460,  when  it  is  overthrown  by  Mohammed  II. 

1454  A  congress  at  Ratisbon  deliberates  on  the  proposal  of  a  cru- 
sade against  the  Turks,  but  nothing  follows. 

1477  Marriage  of  Maximilian,  son  of  Frederick  III,  to  Mary  of  Bur- 
gundy, heiress  of  Duke  Charles  the  Bold.  The  Netherlands 
and  Franche  Comtd  are  thus  acquired  by  the  house  of  Haps- 
burg.  (Philip,  offspring  of  this  marriage,  marries  Juana  of 
Spain,  daughter  of  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  and  Isabella  of 
Castile:  their  son  is  Charles,  afterwards  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.) 

1485-1512  Efforts  to  improve  the  constitution  of  the  Empire,  at  first  led 
by  Berthold  Elector  of  Mentz,  are  made  at  successive 
Diets. 

1486  Bartholomew  Diaz  rounds  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

1489  The  Imperial  cities  are  definitely  recognized  as  members  of  the 
Germanic  Diet. 

1492  Discovery  of  America  by  Christopher  Columbus. 

1493  Death  of  Frederick  III :    his  son,  Maximilian   of  Hapsburg 

(already  elected),  succeeds  him. 
Vasco  da  Gama  reaches  India  by  sea :  beginning  of  the  oceanic 

empire  of  Portugal. 
1508  Maximilian   obtains    the   Pope's   permission   to   call  himself 

Emperor  Elect. 
1508  Luther  begins  to  teach  at  Wittenberg. 

1518  Zwingli  is  established  as  People's  Priest  at  Zurich. 

1519  Death  of  Maximilian  I :  his  grandson  Charles  (king  of  Spain) 

is  elected  Emperor. 
1520-1  Luther,  excommunicated   by  the   Pope,  burns  the   Bull :    he 

appears  before  Charles  V  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  and  is  put 

to  the  ban  of  the  Empire. 
1524-5  Insurrection  of  the  peasants  in  South  Germany. 

1529  The  German  Reformers  make  their  'Protest'  in  the  Diet  of 

Speyer. 

1530  Florence  captured  by  the  troops  of  Charles  V:   the  Medici 

finally  established  as  its  rulers. 

1531  Battle  of  Kappel,  in  which  Zwingli  is  killed. 

The  leading  Protestant  princes  form  the  Smalkaldic  League 

against  the  Emperor. 
1534  The  Society  of  Jesus  established  by  Ignatius  Loyola. 


OF  IMPORTANT  EVENTS  xlix 

1545-63  Sittings  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  which  are  several  times  sus- 
pended for  long  intervals  during  these  eighteen  years. 

1546  Death  of  Martin  Luther. 

War  between  the  Smalkaldic  League  and  the  Emperor:  the 
princes  of  the  League  are  defeated  at  Muhlberg  (1547)  and 
harshly  treated. 

1552  The  territories  of  the  bishops  of  Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun  are 
occupied  by  France :  Charles  V  attempts  in  vain  to  recover 
them. 

Maurice  Elector  of  Saxony  attacks  the  Emperor :  chases  him 
out  of  Tyrol  and  restores  the  Protestant  cause  in  Germany. 

1555  Charles  V  abdicates  and  dies  soon  after  in  Spain  (1558)  :  he  is 

succeeded  by  his  brother  Ferdinand,  previously  elected. 
Proclamation  of  the  so-called  *  Religious  Peace  of  Augsburg,' 
settled  at  the  Diet  held  there  in  1554;  it  allows  each  Ger- 
man prince  to  enforce  on  his  subjects  the  religion  he  had 
adopted :  permits  the  Lutheran  princes  to  retain  all  eccle- 
siastical estates  occupied  before  1552,  but  strips  of  his  lands 
and  dignities  any  prelate  forsaking  the  Roman  communion. 

1560  The  Protestants,  invited  by  the  Emperor  to  the  Council  of 
Trent,  refuse  to  attend.  The  Council  closes  in  1563,  having 
settled  and  defined  the  Catholic  faith. 

1563-8  The  Elector  of  Brandenburg  secures  for  his  house  the  succes- 
sion of  the  dukedom  of  Prussia. 

1564  Death  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  I :  his  son,  Maximilian  II, 
previously  elected,  succeeds,  and  endeavours  to  conciliate 
the  Protestants. 

1576  Death  of  Maximilian  II :  his  son,  Rudolf  II,  becomes  Emperor. 

1608  Formation  in  Germany  of  a  Protestant  Union  of  Princes  and  a 
Catholic  League  of  Princes. 

1612  Death  of  Rudolf  II :  his  brother  Matthias  becomes  Emperor. 

1618  A  conflict  in  Bohemia,  putting  the  torch  to  the  inflammable 

material  all  over  the  central  and  western  parts  of  the  Empire, 
causes  the  outbreak  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

1619  Death  of  Matthias :  his  cousin,  Ferdinand  of  Styria,  becomes 

Emperor. 

1621  Frederick  the  (Protestant)  Elector  Palatine,  who  had  been 
chosen  king  of  Bohemia,  is  driven  out,  and  (1623)  deprived 
of  his  Electorate,  which  is  given  by  the  Emperor  to  (the 
Catholic)  Maximilian  of  Bavaria. 


1  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE 

1628  The  successes  of  Wallenstein,  Ferdinand  IPs  chief  general, 
against  the  Protestants  are  arrested  by  the  resistance  of  the 
town  of  Stralsund.  Sweden  prepares  to  enter  the  war. 

1630  Gustavus   Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden,   enters  Germany  and 
turns  the  balance  of  the  war  in  favour  of  the  Protestants.     He 
defeats  Wallenstein  at  Liitzen  in  1632,  but  is  himself  killed. 
1640-88  Reign  of  Frederick  William,  *  the  Great  Elector,1  in  the  Electo- 
rate of  Brandenburg,  the  power  of  which  he  greatly  increases. 

1648  The  Thirty  Years'  War  is  ended,  after  protracted  negotiations, 
by  the  Treaties  of  Osnabriick  and  Mlinster  (Treaty  of  West- 
phalia) . 

1692  An  Electorate  of  Hanover  (the  ninth,  as  the  Count  Palatine 
had  recovered  his  electoral  rights  in  1648)  is  conferred  on 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick-Liineburg  (father  of  the  English 
king  George  I),  and  the  title  of  Arch  Treasurer  of  the  Em- 
pire is  attached  to  it. 

1700-1  Frederick  Elector  of  Brandenburg  becomes  King  of  Prussia 
by  the  sanction  of  the  Emperor. 

1740  Death  of  the  Emperor  Charles  VI.     Extinction  of  the  male 

line  of  Hapsburg. 

Accession  of  Frederick  II  (the  Great)  to  the  throne  of  Prussia 

The  intrigues   of  France,  pursuing  her  usual   anti-Austrian 

policy,  procure  the  election  as  Emperor  of  Charles,  Elector 

of  Bavaria  (Charles  VII).     A  war  follows,  in  which  Charles 

is  driven  from  his  dominions. 

1745  Death  of  Charles  VII.     Francis,  duke  of  Lorraine,  who  hac 
married  Maria  Theresa,  daughter  of  Charles  VI,  is  electee 
Emperor  and  crowned  at  Frankfort. 
1756-63  The  Seven  Years'  War,  in  which  Frederick  of  Prussia  success- 
fully resists  Austria,  France,  and  Russia. 

1765  Death  of  the  Emperor  Francis  I :  his  son  Joseph,  elected  in 
his  lifetime,  becomes  Emperor. 

1772  First  Partition  of  Poland  between  Austria,  Russia,  and  Prussia 

1781  Joseph  II,  among  other  reforms,  proclaims  religious  toleration 
and  attempts  to  reduce  clerical  power.  The  Pope  comes 
next  year  to  Vienna,  but  effects  nothing.  Joseph  visits 
Rome,  but  is  not  crowned  there. 

1786  Death  of  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia. 

1789  Meeting  of  the  French  States  General  at  Versailles :  beginning 
of  the  Revolution. 


OF   IMPORTANT   EVENTS  li 

1792-5  War  between  the  French  Republic  and  Prussia. 

1792-7  War  between  the  French  Republic  and  Austria.    Austria  cedes 

Lombardy  and  receives  the  territories  of  Venice. 
1801  By  the  Peace  of  Luneville,  closing  a  second  war  between  Aus- 
tria and  the  French,  the  internal  constitution  of  the  Em- 
pire is   completely  altered    and   additional  territory  taken 
from  it. 

1804  Napoleon  Bonaparte  becomes  Emperor;  he  considers  himself 

the  successor  of  Charlemagne  as  Emperor  of  the  West. 

1805  The  overthrow  of  Austria  and  Russia  by  Napoleon  at  Auster- 

litz  is  followed  by  the  formation  of  the  Confederation  of  the 
Rhine  under  the  protection  of  France. 

1806  Abdication  of  the  Emperor  Francis  II.     END  OF  THE  HOLY 

ROMAN  EMPIRE. 
1814-15  Fall  of  the  Napoleonic  Empire. 

Congress  of  Vienna :  establishment  of  the  Germanic  Confed- 
eration. 
1820  The  Vienna  Final  Act  varies  and  completes  the  constitution 

of  the  Confederation. 

1830  Revolution  in  France  :  establishment  of  a  constitutional  mon- 
archy under  Louis  Philippe. 
1833-5  Establishment  of  the  German  Customs  Union  (Zollverein), 

which  includes  all  the  German  States  except  Austria. 
1837  Great  Britain  ceases,  by  the  passing  of  Hanover  away  from 
the  British  Crown  to  Ernest  Augustus  (brother  of  the  late 
King  William  IV),  to  be  a  member  of  the  Germanic  Con- 
federation. 

1847  Creation  of  a  Parliament  for  the  whole  Prussian  monarchy. 

1848  Revolution  in  France:  a  Republic  is  set  up,  which  in  1851-2 

is  turned  first  into  a  ten  years'  Presidency,  then  into  an 
Empire,  under  Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte. 

1848-50  Revolution  in  Vienna,  risings  in  the  German  capitals:  a 
national  Parliament  meets  in  Frankfort  and  offers  the  title 
of  Emperor  to  the  king  of  Prussia,  who  refuses.  The  Con- 
federation is  re-established  in  1851. 

1859  Formation  of  the  popular  league  called  the  National  Union  in 
Germany,  followed  (1862)  by  the  rival  Reform  Union  in 
the  interests  of  conservatism  and  of  Austria. 

1859-60  War  of  France  and  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia  against  Austria  : 
Lombardy  is  ceded  and  added  to  Piedmont ;  the  people  expel 


lii  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

the  minor  Italian  princes,  whose  territories  pass  to  the  king 
of  Sardinia ;  he  thereupon  becomes  king  of  Italy :  Garibaldi 
drives  the  Bourbons  out  of  Sicily  and  Naples.  The  French, 
who  had  occupied  Rome  in  1849,  still  hold  it  for  the  Pope. 
1862  Bismarck  becomes  chief  minister  of  Prussia,  and  engages  in  a 
long  struggle  with  the  Prussian  Parliament  over  its  right  to 
control  military  expenditure. 

1863-4  A  conflict,  passing  into  war,  begins  between  Denmark  and  the 
German  Confederation,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  over  the  suc- 
cession to  Schleswig-Holstein :  defeat  of  the  Danes,  who 
cede  these  duchies  to  Prussia  and  Austria. 

1866  War  of  Prussia  and  Italy  against  Austria,  and  also  of  Prussia 
against  some  of  the  States  of  the  Confederation  :  victory  of 
Prussia.  Austria  is  compelled  to  withdraw  from  the  Con- 
federation, which  ceases  to  exist.  Prussia,  annexing  four 
German  States,  forms  a  North  German  Confederation  under 
her  presidency  out  of  the  Northern  and  Middle  States,  and 
subsequently  concludes  military  treaties  with  Bavaria,  Wiir- 
temberg,  Baden,  and  Hessen-Darmstadt. 

1870-1  War  between  the  French  Empire  and  Germany,  the  South 
German  States  siding  with  the  North  German  Confedera- 
tion. France  cedes  Alsace  and  part  of  Lorraine  to  Ger- 
many :  the  North  German  Confederation  is  extended  by  the 
adhesion  of  the  South  German  States  to  include  all  Germany 
(Austria  still  remaining  outside),  and  is  reconstituted  as  a 
GERMAN  EMPIRE  with  the  king  of  Prussia  as  Hereditary 
Emperor.  The  Italian  troops  enter  Rome,  which,  with  the 
territory  round  it  that  had  remained  to  the  Pope,  becomes 
part  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  the  Pope  retiring  to  the  Vati- 
can, where  he  has  since  remained. 


THE    HOLY   ROMAN    EMPIRE 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE 


CHAPTER   I 

INTRODUCTORY 

OF  those  who  in  August,  1 806,  read  in  the  newspapers  CHAP.  I. 
that  the  Emperor  Francis  II  had  announced  to  the  Ger- 
manic Diet  his  resignation  of  the  imperial  crown  there  were 
probably  few  who  reflected  that  the  oldest  political  institu- 
tion in  the  world  had  come  to  an  end.  Yet  it  was  so.  The 
Empire  which  a  note  issued  by  a  diplomatist  on  the  banks 
of  the  Danube  extinguished  was  the  same  which  the  crafty 
nephew  of  Julius  had  won  for  himself,  against  the  powers 
of  the  East,  beneath  the  cliffs  of  Actium ;  and  which  had 
preserved  almost  unaltered,  through  eighteen  centuries  of 
time,  and  through  the  greatest  changes  in  extent,  in  power, 
and  in  character,  a  title  and  pretensions  from  which  their 
ancient  meaning  had  long  since  departed.  Nothing  else 
so  directly  linked  the  old  world  to  the  new  —  nothing  else 
displayed  so  many  strange  contrasts  of  the  present  and  the 
past,  and  summed  up  in  those  contrasts  so  much  of  Euro- 
pean history.  From  the  days  of  Constantine  till  far  down 
into  the  Middle  Ages  it  was,  conjointly  with  the  Papacy, 
the  recognized  centre  and  head  of  Christendom,  exercising 
over  the  minds  of  men  an  influence  such  as  its  material 
strength  could  never  have  commanded. 

It  is  of  this  influence  and  of  the  causes  that  gave  it 
power  rather  than  of  the  external  history  of  the  Empire 
that  the  following  pages  are  designed  to  treat.  Tha,t 


THE   HOLY  ROMAN   EMPIRE 


CHAP.  I.  history  is  indeed  full  of  interest  and  brilliancy,  of  grand 
characters  and  striking  situations.  But  it  is  a  subject  too 
vast  for  any  single  canvas.  Without  a  minuteness  of  detail 
sufficient  to  make  its  scenes  dramatic,  and  give  us  a  lively 
sympathy  with  the  actors,  a  narrative  history  can  have 
little  value  and  still  less  charm.  But  to  trace  with  any 
minuteness  the  career  of  the  Empire,  would  be  to  write  the 
history  of  Christendom  from  the  fifth  century  to  the  twelfth, 
of  Germany  and  Italy  from  the  twelfth  to  the  nineteenth ; 
while  even  a  narrative  of  more  restricted  scope,  which 
should  attempt  to  disengage  from  a  general  account  of  the 
affairs  of  those  countries  the  events  that  properly  belong 
to  imperial  history,  could  hardly  be  compressed  within  rea- 
sonable limits.  It  is  therefore  better,  declining  so  great  a 
task,  to  attempt  one  simpler  and  more  practicable  though 
not  necessarily  inferior  in  interest ;  to  speak  less  of  events 
than  of  principles,  and  endeavour  to  describe  the  Empire 
not  as  a  State  but  as  an  Institution,  an  institution  created 
by  and  embodying  a  wonderful  system  of  ideas.  In  pur- 
suance of  such  a  plan,  the  forms  which  the  Empire  took  in 
the  several  stages  of  its  growth  and  decline  must  be  briefly 
sketched.  The  characters  and  acts  of  the  great  men  who 
founded,  guided,  and  overthrew  it  must  from  time  to  time 
be  touched  upon.  But  the  chief  aim  of  the  treatise  will  be 
to  dwell  more  fully  on  the  inner  nature  of  the  Empire,  as 
the  most  signal  instance  of  the  fusion  of  Roman  and  Teu- 
tonic elements  in  modern  civilization :  to  shew  how  such  a 
combination  was  possible;  how  Charles  and  Otto  were 
led  to  revive  the  imperial  title  in  the  West ;  how  far  during 
the  reigns  of  their  successors  it  preserved  the  memory  of 
its  origin,  and  influenced  the  European  commonwealth  of 
nations. 

Strictly  speaking,  it  is  from  the  year  800  A.D.,  when  a 
King  of  the  Franks  was  crowned  Emperor  of  the  Romans 


INTRODUCTORY 


by  Pope  Leo  III,  that  the  beginning  of  the  Holy  Roman  CHAP.  L 
Empire  must  be  dated.  But  in  history  there  is  nothing 
isolated,  and  just  as  to  explain  a  modern  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment or  a  modern  conveyance  of  lands  we  must  go  back 
to  the  feudal  customs  of  the  thirteenth  century,  so  among 
the  institutions  of  the  Middle  Ages  there  is  scarcely  one 
which  can  be  understood  until  it  is  traced  up  either  to 
classical  or  to  primitive  Teutonic  antiquity.  Such  a  mode 
of  inquiry  is  most  of  all  needful  in  the  case  of  the  Holy 
Empire,  itself  no  more  than  a  tradition,  a  fancied  revival 
of  departed  glories.  And  thus  one  who  seeks  to  explain 
out  of  what  elements  the  imperial  system  was  formed, 
might  be  required  to  scrutinize  the  antiquities  of  the 
Christian  Church,  to  survey  the  constitution  of  Rome  in 
the  days  when  Rome  was  no  more  than  the  first  of  the 
Latin  cities,  nay,  to  travel  back  yet  further  to  that  Jewish 
theocratic  polity  whose  influence  on  the  minds  of  the 
mediaeval  priesthood  was  necessarily  so  profound.  Prac- 
tically, however,  it  may  suffice  to  begin  by  glancing  at  the 
condition  of  the  Roman  world  in  the  third  and  fourth  cen- 
turies of  the  Christian  era.  We  shall  then  see  the  old 
Empire  with  its  scheme  of  absolutism  fully  matured ;  we 
shall  mark  how  the  new  religion,  rising  in  the  midst  of  a 
hostile  power,  ends  by  embracing  and  transforming  it ; 
and  we  shall  be  in  a  position  to  understand  what  impres- 
sion the  whole  huge  fabric  of  secular  and  ecclesiastical 
government  which  Roman  and  Christian  had  piled  up 
made  upon  the  barbarian  tribes  who  pressed  into  the 
charmed  circle  of  the  ancient  civilization. 


CHAPTER   II 


THE   ROMAN    EMPIRE   BEFORE   THE   ENTRANCE   OF   THE   BAR- 
BARIANS 


CHAP.  II. 

The  Roman 
Empire  in 
the  second 
century. 


THAT  ostentation  of  humility  which  the  subtle  policy  of 
Augustus  had  conceived,  and  the  jealous  hypocrisy  of 
Tiberius  maintained,  was  gradually  dropped  by  their  suc- 
cessors, till  despotism  became  at  last  recognized  in  prin- 
ciple as  the  government  of  the  Roman  Empire.  With  an 
aristocracy  decayed,  a  populace  degraded,  an  army  no 
longer  recruited  from  Italy,  the  semblance  of  liberty  that 
yet  survived  might  be  swept  away  with  impunity.  Repub- 
lican forms  had  never  been  known  in  the  provinces,  and 
the  aspect  which  the  imperial  administration  had  originally 
assumed  there  soon  reacted  on  its  position  in  the  capital. 
Earlier  rulers  had  disguised  their  supremacy  by  making  a 
slavish  senate  the  instrument  of  their  more  cruel  or  arbi- 
trary acts.  As  time  went  on,  even  this  veil  was  with- 
A.D.  193-211.  drawn  ;  and  in  the  age  of  Septimius  Severus  the  Emperor 
stood  forth  to  the  whole  Roman  world  as  the  single  centre 
and  source  of  political  power  and  action.  The  warlike 
character  of  the  Roman  State  was  preserved  in  his  title  of 
Commander  (Imperator)\  his  provincial  lieutenants  were 
military  governors ;  and  a  more  terrible  enforcement  of 
the  theory  was  found  in  his  practical  dependence  on  the 
army,  at  once  the  origin  and  the  support  of  his  authority. 
But,  as  he  united  in  himself  every  function  of  government, 
his  sovereignty  was  civil  as  well  as  military.  Laws  ema- 


THE   EMPIRE    BEFORE   THE   INVASIONS  5 

nated  from  him ;  all  officials  acted  under  his  commission ;  CHAP.  n. 
the  sanctity  of  his  person  bordered  on  divinity.  This  in- 
creased concentration  of  power  was  mainly  required  by  the 
necessities  of  frontier  defence,  for  within  there  was  more 
decay  than  disaffection.  Few  troops  were  quartered 
through  the  country :  few  fortresses  checked  the  march 
of  armies  in  the  struggles  which  placed  Vespasian  and  (a 
century  later)  Severus  on  the  throne.  The  distant  crash 
of  war  from  the  Rhine  or  the  Euphrates  was  scarcely 
heard  or  heeded  in  the  profound  calm  of  the  Mediterranean 
coasts,  where,  after  the  extinction  of  piracy,  fleets  had 
ceased  to  be  maintained.  No  quarrels  of  race  or  religion 
disturbed  that  calm,  for  all  national  distinctions  were  be- 
coming merged  in  the  idea  of  a  common  Empire.  The 
gradual  extension  of  Roman  citizenship  through  the  Obliteration 
founding  of  coloniae,  first  throughout  Italy  and  then  in 
the  provinces,  the  working  of  the  equalized  and  equalizing 
Roman  law,  the  even  pressure  of  the  government  on  all 
subjects,  the  movements  of  population  caused  by  com- 
merce and  the  slave  traffic,  were  steadily  assimilating  the 
various  peoples.  Emperors  who  were  for  the  most  part 
natives  of  the  provinces  cared  little  to  cherish  Italy  or 
even,  after  the  days  of  the  Antonines,  to  conciliate  Rome. 
It  was  their  policy  to  keep  open  for  every  subject  a  career 
by  whose  freedom  they  had  themselves  risen  to  greatness, 
and  to  recruit  the  senate  from  the  most  illustrious  families 
in  the  cities  of  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Asia.  The  edict  by  A.D.  211-217, 
which  Caracalla  extended  to  all  natives  of  the  Roman 
world  the  rights  of  Roman  citizenship,  though  prompted 
by  no  motives  of  generosity,  proved  in  the  end  a  boon. 
Annihilating  distinctions  of  legal  status  among  freemen,  it 
completed  the  work  which  trade  and  literature  and  tolera- 
tion to  all  beliefs  but  one  were  already  performing,  and 
left,  so  far  as  we  can  tell,  only  one  nation  still  cherishing 


THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


CHAP.  ii.  a  national  feeling.*  The  Jew  was  kept  apart  by  his  re- 
ligion :  but  the  Jewish  people  was  already  dispersed  over 
the  world.  Speculative  philosophy  lent  its  aid  to  this 
general  assimilation.  Stoicism,  with  its  doctrine  of  a 
universal  system  of  nature,  made  minor  distinctions  be- 
tween man  and  man  seem  insignificant :  and  by  its 
teachers  the  idea  of  a  world-commonwealth  whereof  all 
men  are  citizens  was  for  the  first  time  proclaimed.  Alex- 
andrian Neo-Platonism,  uniting  the  tenets  of  many  schools, 
and  bringing  the  mysticism  of  Egypt  and  the  East  into 
connection  with  the  logical  philosophies  of  Greece,  had 
opened  up  a  new  ground  of  agreement  or  controversy  for 

The  capital,  the  minds  of  all  the  world.  Yet  the  commanding  position 
of  the  Roman  city  was  scarcely  shaken.  The  actual  power 
of  her  assemblies  had  indeed  long  since  departed.  Rarely 
were  her  senate  and  people  permitted  to  choose  the  sover- 
eign :  more  rarely  still  could  they  influence  his  policy. 
Neither  law  nor  custom  raised  the  inhabitants  of  the  city 
above  other  subjects,  or  accorded  to  them  any  advantage 
in  the  career  of  civil  or  military  ambition.  As  in  time 
past  Rome  had  sacrificed  domestic  freedom  in  making 
herself  the  mistress  of  others,  so  now  in  becoming  the 
Universal  State,b  she,  the  conqueror,  had  descended  to 
the  level  of  the  conquered.6  But  the  sacrifice  had  not 
wanted  its  reward.  From  her  came  the  laws  and  the 
language  that  had  overspread  the  world : d  at  her  feet 

*  As  to  this  gift  of  citizenship,  reference  may  be  made  to  an  essay  on  the 
Extension  of  Roman  and  English  Law  throughout  the  World  in  the  author's 
Studies  in  History  and  Jurisprudence,  Vol.  I. 

b  As  it  was  said,  Urbsfiebat  Orbis. 

c  Under  Diocletian,  the  provincial  land  tax  and  provincial  system  of  ad- 
ministration were  introduced  into  Italy,  and  the  four  imperial  residences  were 
Milan,  Treves,  Sirmium  (in  Pannonia),  and  Nicomedia  (in  Bithynia). 

d  Condita  est  civitas  Roma  per  quam  Deo  placuit  orbem  debellare  terrarum 
et  in  unam  societatem  reipublicae  legumque  longe  lateque  pacare.  —  St. 
Augustine,  De  Civit.  Dei,  xviii.  22. 


THE   EMPIRE   BEFORE   THE   INVASIONS  7 

the  nations  laid  the  offerings  of  their  labour :  she  was  the  CHAP.  11. 
head  of  the  Empire  and  of  civilization,  and  in  riches,  fame, 
and  splendour  far   outshone  as  well    the    other   cities    of 
that  time  as  the  fabled  glories  of  Babylon  or  Persepolis. 

Scarcely  had  these  slowly-working  influences  brought 
about  this  unity,  when  other  influences  began  to  threaten 
it.  New  foes  assailed  the  frontiers  ;  while  the  loosening 
of  the  structure  within  was  shewn  by  the  long  struggles 
for  power  which  followed  the  death  or  deposition  of  each 
successive  emperor.  In  the  period  of  anarchy  after  the 
fall  of  Valerian,  generals  were  raised  by  their  armies  in  A.D.  253-270. 
every  part  of  the  Empire,  and  ruled  great  provinces  as 
monarchs  apart,  owning  no  allegiance  to  the  possessor 
of  the  capital.  The  breaking-up  of  the  Western  half  of 
the  Empire  into  separate  kingdoms  might  have  been 
anticipated  by  two  hundred  years  had  the  barbarian  tribes 
on  the  borders  been  bolder,  or  had  there  not  arisen  in 
Diocletian  a  prince  active  and  skilful  enough  to  bind  up  Diocletian, 
the  fragments  before  they  had  lost  all  cohesion,  meeting  A-D-284-3°5- 
altered  conditions  by  new  remedies.  The  policy  he  adopted 
of  dividing  and  localizing  authority  recognized  the  fact  that 
the  weakened  heart  could  no  longer  make  its  pulsations 
felt  to  the  body's  extremities.  He  parcelled  out  the 
supreme  power  among  four  monarchs,  ruling  as  joint- 
emperors  in  four  capitals,  and  then  sought  to  give  it  a 
factitious  strength  by  surrounding  it  with  an  oriental  pomp 
which  his  earlier  predecessors  would  have  scorned.  The 
sovereign's  person  became  more  sacred,  and  was  removed 
further  from  the  subject  by  the  interposition  of  a  host  of 
officials.  The  prerogative  of  Rome  was  menaced  by  the 
rivalry  of  Nicomedia,  and  the  nearer  greatness  of  Milan. 
Constantine  trod  in  the  same  path,  developing  the  system  Constantine, 
of  titles  into  a  sort  of  nobility,  separating  the  civil  from  A-D-  306-337- 
the  military  functionaries,  placing  counts  and  dukes  along 


8  THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

CHAP.  ii.  the  frontiers  and  in  the  cities,  making  the  household 
larger,  its  etiquette  stricter,  its  offices  more  dignified, 
though  to  a  Roman  eye  degraded  by  their  attachment 
to  the  monarch's  person.  The  crown  became,  for  the  first 
time,  the  fountain  of  honour. 

These  expedients  proved  insufficient  to  prop  the  totter- 
ing fabric  of  imperial  administration.  Taxation,  which 
grew  always  heavier  as  the  number  of  persons  who  bore 
it  was  reduced,  depressed  the  aristocracy : e  population 
decreased,  agriculture  withered,  serfdom  spread :  it  was 
found  more  difficult  to  raise  native  troops  and  to  pay  any 
troops  whatever.  The  removal  by  Constantine  of  the 
imperial  residence  to  Byzantium,  if  it  prolonged  the  life 
of  the  Eastern  half  of  the  Empire,  shook  the  Empire  as 
a  whole,  by  accelerating  the  separation  of  East  and  West. 
By  that  removal  Rome's  self-abnegation  that  she  might 
Romanize  the  world  was  completed  ;  for  though  the  new 
capital  preserved  her  name,  and  followed  her  customs  and 
precedents,  yet  now  the  imperial  sway  ceased  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  city  which  had  created  it.  Thus  did  the 
idea  of  Roman  monarchy  become  more  universal ;  for, 
having  lost  its  local  centre,  it  subsisted  no  longer  by  his- 
toric right  only,  but,  so  to  speak,  naturally,  as  a  part  of  an 
order  of  things  which  a  change  in  external  conditions 
seemed  incapable  of  disturbing.  Henceforth  the  idea  of  a 
Roman  Empire  might  stand  unaffected  by  the  disasters  of 
the  city.  And  though,  after  the  partition  of  the  Empire 

*.D.  364.  had  been  confirmed  by  Valentinian  I,  and  finally  settled 
on  the  death  of  Theodosius  the  Great,  the  seat  of  the 

A.D.  395.  Western  government  was  removed  first  to  Milan  and  then 
to  Ravenna,  neither  event  destroyed  Rome's  prestige,  nor 

e  According  to  the  vicious  financial  system  that  prevailed,  the  curiales  in 
each  city  were  required  to  collect  the  taxes,  and  when  there  was  a  deficit,  to 
supply  it  from  their  own  property. 


THE  EMPIRE   BEFORE   THE   INVASIONS  9 

the  notion  of  a  single  imperial  nationality  common  to  all  CHAP.  11. 
her  subjects.     The  Syrian,  the  Pannonian,  the  Briton,  the 
Spaniard,  still  called  himself  a  Roman. f 

For  that  imperial  nationality  was  now  beginning  to  be  Christianity. 
supported  by  a  new  and  vigorous  power.  The  emperors 
had  indeed  opposed  Christianity  as  disloyal  and  revolution- 
ary :  had  more  than  once  put  forth  their  whole  strength 
to  root  it  out.  But  the  unity  of  the  Empire,  and  the  ease 
of  communication  through  its  parts,  had  favoured  the 
spread  of  the  new  faith :  persecution  had  scattered  the 
seeds  more  widely,  had  forced  on  it  a  firm  organization, 
had  given  it  martyr-heroes  and  a  history.  When  Con- 
stantine,  partly  perhaps  from  a  genuine  moral  sympathy, 
yet  doubtless  also  in  the  well-grounded  belief  that  he  had 
more  to  gain  from  the  zealous  support  of  its  professors 
than  he  could  lose  by  the  aversion  of  those  who  still 
cultivated  a  languid  paganism,  extended  toleration  to 
Christianity  and  ultimately  embraced  it  himself,  it  was 
already  a  great  political  force,  able,  and  not  more  able 
than  willing,  to  repay  him  by  aid  and  submission.  Yet 
the  league  was  struck  in  no  mere  mercenary  spirit,  for  state. 

f  See  the  eloquent  passage  of  Claudian,  In  sccundum  consulatum  Stilichonis, 
129  sqq.,  and  especially  the  following  lines  (150-160)  : 
*  Haec  est  in  gremio  victos  quae  sola  recepit, 

Humanumque  genus  communi  nomine  fovit,  » 

Matris,  non  dominae,  ritu;   civesque  vocavit 

Quos  domuit,  nexuque  pio  longinqua  revinxit. 

Huius  pacificis  debemus  moribus  ornnes 

Quod  veluti  patriis  regionibus  utitur  hospes : 

Quod  sedem  mutare  licet :  quod  cernere  Thulen 

Lusus,  et  horrendos  quondam  penetrare  recessus : 

Quod  bibimus  passim  Rhodanum,  potamus  Oronten, 

Quod  cuncti  gens  una  sumus.     Nee  terminus  unquam 

Romanae  ditionis  erit.' 

St.  Patrick  (a  younger  contemporary  of  Claudian),  in  his  Epistle  to  Coroticus, 
speaks  of  the  Christians  of  Gaul  as  Romans. 


10  THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

CHAP.  ii.  the  league  was  inevitable.  Of  the  evils  and  dangers 
incident  to  such  an  alliance  of  the  civil  and  the  ecclesi- 
astical authority  as  that  which  grew  up  in  the  century 
after  Constantine,  there  was  as  yet  no  experience  :  of 
that  antagonism  between  Church  and  State  which  to  a 
modern  appears  so  natural,  there  was  not  even  an  idea. 
In  the  Psalms  and  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment (the  influence  of  which  on  the  early  Christians  was 
profound)  the  unity  of  the  nation  stands  based  upon  reli- 
gion :  Israel  is  the  people  of  Jehovah,  owes  Him  collective 
as  well  as  individual  worship,  conquers  and  prospers  by 
His  help.  Among  the  Romans  religion  had  been  an 
integral  part  of  the  political  constitution,  a  matter  far 
more  of  national  or  tribal  or  family  feeling  than  of  per- 
sonal devotion  to  a  spiritual  power.g  Both  in  Israel  and 
at  Rome  the  mingling  of  religious  with  civic  patriotism 
had  been  harmonious,  giving  strength  and  elasticity  to  the 
whole  body  politic.  So  perfect  a  union  was  now  no  longer 
possible  in  the  Roman  Empire,  for  the  Christian  com- 
munity had  already  a  governing  body  of  its  own  in  those 
rulers  and  teachers  on  whom  the  growth  of  sacramental- 
ism,  and  of  sacerdotalism  its  necessary  consequence,  was 
every  day  conferring  more  and  more  power,  while  mark- 
ing them  off  more  sharply  from  the  mass  of  the  Christian 
people.  Since  therefore  the  ecclesiastical  organization 
could  not  be  identical  with  the  civil,  it  became  its 
counterpart.  Suddenly  called  from  danger  and  ignominy 
to  the  seat  of  power,  and  finding  her  inexperience  per- 
plexed by  a  sphere  of  action  vast  and  varied,  the  Church 
was  compelled  to  continue  the  process  on  which  she  had 
already  entered  of  framing  her  government  upon  the 
model  of  the  secular  administration.  Where  her  own 
machinery  was  defective,  as  in  the  case  of  doctrinal  dis- 

s  In  the  Roman  jurisprudence,  ius  sacrum  is  a  branch  of  ius  publicum. 


THE   EMPIRE   BEFORE   THE   INVASIONS  II 

putes  affecting  the  whole  Christian  world,  she  sought  the  CHAP,  n 
interposition  of  the  Sovereign  ;  in  all  else  she  strove  not 
to  sink  into,  but  to  reproduce  for  her  own  ecclesiastical 
purposes,  the  imperial  system.  And  just  as  with  the 
extension  of  the  Empire  all  the  independent  rights  of 
districts,  towns,  or  tribes  had  disappeared,  so  now  the 
primitive  freedom  and  diversity  of  individual  Christians 
and  local  churches,  already  circumscribed  by  the  frequent 
struggles  against  heresy  and  schism,  was  finally  overborne 
by  the  idea  of  one  Visible  Catholic  Church,  uniform  in 
faith  and  ritual ;  uniform  too  in  her  relation  to  the  civil 
power  and  the  increasingly  oligarchical  character  of  her 
government.  Thus,  under  the  combined  force  of  doctrinal 
theory  and  practical  needs,  there  shaped  itself  a  hierarchy 
of  patriarchs,  metropolitans,  and  bishops,  their  jurisdiction, 
although  still  chiefly  spiritual,  recognized,  and  after  a  time 
enforced,  by  the  laws  of  the  State,  their  provinces  and 
dioceses  usually  corresponding  to  the  administrative  divi- 
sions of  the  Empire.  As  no  patriarch  yet  enjoyed  more 
than  an  honorary  supremacy,  the  earthly  head  of  the 
Church  —  so  far  as  she  could  be  said  to  have  a  head  — 
was  virtually  the  Emperor  himself.  The  presumptive 
right  to  intermeddle  in  religious  affairs  which  he  had  in 
heathen  times  derived  from  the  office  of  Pontifex  Maxi- 
mus,  regularly  assumed  by  the  successors  of  Augustus, 
was  readily  admitted ;  and  the  clergy,  preaching  the  duty 
of  obedience  now  as  it  had  been  preached  even  in  the 
days  of  Nero  and  Decius,h  were  well  pleased  to  see  him 

h  '  Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers.  For  there  is  no 
power  but  from  God :  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God.  Whosoever 
therefore  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God'  (Rom.  xiii.  i). 
*  Submit  yourselves  to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the  Lord's  sake :  whether 
it  be  to  the  Emperor  as  supreme;  or  unto  Governors,  as  unto  them  that  are 
sent  by  him  for  the  punishment  of  evildoers,  and  for  the  praise  of  them  that 
do  well'  (i  Pet.  ii.  13).  So  Tertullian,  writing  circ.  A.D.  200,  says:  'Sed 


12 


THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


CHAP.  ii. 


it  embraces 


idea. 


preside  in  General  Councils,  issue  edicts  against  heresy, 
and  testify  even  by  arbitrary  measures  his  zeal  for  the 
advancement  of  the  faith  and  the  overthrow  of  pagan 
rites.1  But  though  the  tone  of  the  Church  remained 
humble,  her  strength  waxed  greater,  nor  were  occasions 
wanting  which  revealed  the  future  that  was  in  store  for 
her.  The  resistance  to  the  Emperor  of  St.  Athanasius 
(Archbishop  of  Alexandria),  and  his  final  triumph  in  the 
long  struggle  against  the  Arians,  proved  that  the  new 
society  could  put  forth  a  power  of  opinion  such  as  had 
never  been  known  before  :  the  abasement  of  Theodosius 
the  Emperor  before  Ambrose  the  Archbishop  admitted 
the  supremacy  of  spiritual  authority.  In  the  decrepitude 
of  old  institutions,  in  the  barrenness  of  literature  and  the 
feebleness  of  art,  it  was  to  the  Church  that  the  life  and 
feelings  of  the  people  sought  more  and  more  to  attach 
themselves  ;  and  when  in  the  fifth  century  the  horizon 
grew  black  with  clouds  of  ruin,  those  who  watched  with 
despair  or  apathy  the  approach  of  irresistible  foes,  fled  for 
comfort  to  the  shrine  of  a  religion  which  even  those  foes 
revered. 

But  that  which  we  are  above  all  here  concerned  to 
remar^  is>  tnat  tn^s  church  system,  demanding  a  more 
rigid  uniformity  in  doctrine  and  organization,  making  more 
and  more  vital  the  notion  of  a  visible  body  of  worshippers 
united  by  participation  in  the  same  sacraments,  maintained 

quid  ego  amplius  de  religione  atque  pietate  Christiana  in  imperatorem  quern 
necesse  est  suspiciamus  ut  eum  quern  Dominus  noster  elegerit.  Et  merito 
dixerim,  noster  est  magis  Caesar,  ut  a  nostro  Deo  constitutus.'  —  Apologet. 
cap.  34. 

1  Eusebius"  describes  Constantine  as  a  sort  of  '  Summus  episcopus  '  :  old  nt 
KOIV&S  ^7r/<7K07ros  ^K  GcoG  KadeffTOL^vo^  (rvvbdovs  T<jjv  TOV  Oeou  XeLTOvpy&v  <rvve- 
K/>6rei.  And  Constantine  (according  to  Eusebius)  described  himself  to  the 
bishops  in  a  similar  way  :  v/j.€is  T&V  etona  TTJS  £KK\'r]<rtas  £y&  d£  rdv  &crds  inrb 
ctrjv. 


THE   EMPIRE  BEFORE  THE   INVASIONS  13 

and  propagated  afresh  the  feeling  of  a  single  Roman  people  CHAP.  n. 
throughout  the  world.     Christianity  as  well  as  civilization 
became  conterminous  with  the   Roman  Empire^     To  be 
a  Roman  was  to  be  a  Christian  :  and  this  idea  soon  passed 
into  the  converse.     To  be  a  Christian  was  to  be  a  Roman. 

J  See  the  book  of  Optatus,  Bishop  of  Milevis  (circ.  A.D.  370),  Contra  Dona- 
tistas.  '  Xon  enim  respublica  est  in  ecclesia,  sed  ecclesia  in  republica,  id  est, 
in  imperio  Romano,  cum  super  imperatorem  non  sit  nisi  solus  Deus '  (p.  999 
of  vol.  ii  of  Migne;  Patrologiae  Cursus  completus}.  The  treatise  of  Optatus 
is  full  of  interest,  as  shewing  the  growth  of  the  idea  of  the  visible  Church, 
and  of  the  primacy  of  Peter's  chair,  as  constituting  its  centre  and  representing 
its  unity.  In  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  the  only  Christian  countries  out- 
side the  limits  of  the  Empire  were  Ireland  and  Armenia,  and  Armenia,  main- 
taining a  precarious  existence  beside  the  great  Persian  monarchy  of  the 
Sassanid  kings,  had  been  for  a  long  time  virtually  dependent  on  the  Roman 
power. 


CHAPTER   III 


CHAP.  III. 
The  bar- 
barians. 


B.C.  101. 


THE    BARBARIAN    INVASIONS 

UPON  a  world  so  constituted  did  the  barbarians  of  the 
North  descend.  From  the  dawn  of  history  they  shew  as 
a  dim  background  to  the  warmth  and  light  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean coasts,  changing  little  while  kingdoms  rise  and  fall 
in  the  South,  only  thought  on  when  some  hungry  swarm 
comes  down  to  pillage  or  to  settle.  It  is  always  as  foes 
that  they  are  known.  The  Romans  never  forgot  the  in- 
vasion of  Brennus  ;  and  their  fears,  renewed  by  the  irrup- 
tion of  the  Cimbri  and  Teutones,  could  not  let  them  rest 
till  the  extension  of  the  frontier  to  the  Rhine  and  the 
Danube  removed  Italy  from  immediate  danger.  A  little 
more  perseverance  under  Tiberius,  or  again  under  Hadrian, 
would  probably  have  reduced  all  Germany  as  far  as  the 
Baltic  and  the  Oder.  But  the  politic  or  jealous  advice  of 
Augustus  a  was  followed,  and  it  was  only  along  the  frontiers 
that  Roman  arts  and  culture  affected  the  Teutonic  races. 
Commerce  was  brisk  ;  Roman  envoys  penetrated  the  forest; 
to  the  courts  of  rude  chieftains ;  adventurous  barbarian: 
entered  the  provinces,  sometimes  to  admire,  oftener,  lik< 
the  brother  of  Arminius,b  to  take  service  under  the  Roman 
flag,  and  rise  to  a  distinction  in  the  legion  which  som< 

a  '  Addiderat  consilium  coercendi  intra  terminos  imperii,  incertum  meti 
an  per  invidiam.' — Tac.  Ann.  i.  n. 
b  Tac.  Ann.  ii.  9. 

14 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  15 

feud  denied  them  at  home.  This  was  found  even  more  CHAP.  in. 
convenient  by  the  hirer  than  by  the  hired  ;  till  by  degrees 
barbarian  mercenaries  came  to  form  the  largest,  and  cer- 
tainly the  most  efficient,  part  of  the  Roman  armies.  The 
bodyguard  of  Augustus  had  been  so  composed ;  the  prae- 
torians were  generally  selected  from  the  bravest  frontier 
troops,  most  of  them  German ;  the  practice  could  not  but 
increase  with  the  extinction  of  the  free  peasantry,  the 
growth  of  villenage,  and  the  effeminacy  of  all  classes. 
Emperors  who  were,  like  Maximin,  themselves  sprung  from 
a  barbarian  stock,  encouraged  a  system  by  whose  means 
they  had  risen,  and  whose  advantages  they  knew.  After 
Constantine,  the  levies  from  outside  the  Empire  form  the 
majority  of  the  troops;  after  Theodosius,  a  Roman  is  the  Admitted  to 
exception.  The  soldiers  of  the  Eastern  Empire  in  the  time  Ro™aLn  titles 

and  /tonotiTS . 

of  Arcadius  are  almost  all  Goths,  vast  bodies  of  whom  had 
been  settled  in  the  provinces ;  while  in  the  West,  Stilicho c  A.D.  405. 
can  oppose  Rhodogast  only  by  summoning  the  German 
auxiliaries  from  the  frontiers.  Along  with  this  practice 
there  had  grown  up  another,  which  did  still  more  to  make 
the  barbarians  feel  themselves  members  of  the  Roman 
State.  The  pride  of  the  old  republic  had  been  exclusive, 
but  under  the  Empire  the  maxim  was  accepted  that  neither 
birth  nor  race  should  exclude  a  subject  from  any  post 
which  his  abilities  deserved.  This  principle,  which  had 
removed  all  obstacles  from  the  path  of  the  Spaniard  Trajan, 
the  Thracian  Maximin,  the  Arabian  Philip,  was  afterwards 
extended  to  the  conferring  of  honour  and  power  on  persons 
who  did  not  even  profess  to  have  passed  through  the  grades 
of  Roman  service,  but  remained  leaders  of  their  own  tribes. 
Ariovistus  had  been  soothed  by  the  title  of  Friend  of  the 
Roman  People ;  in  the  third  century  the  insignia  of  the 

c  Stilicho,  the  bulwark  of  the  Empire,  seems  to  have  been  himself  a  Van- 
dal by  extraction. 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE 


CHAP.  in.  consulship d  were  conferred  by  Gallienus  on  Naulobatus  a 
Herulian  chief :  Crocus  and  his  Alemanni  entered  as  an 
independent  body  into  the  service  of  Rome ;  along  the 
Rhine  whole  tribes  received,  under  the  name  of  Laeti, 
lands  within  the  provinces  on  condition  of  military  service  ; 
and  the  foreign  aid  which  the  Sarmatian  had  proffered  to 
Vespasian  against  his  rival,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  had 
indignantly  rejected  in  the  war  with  Cassius,  became  the 
usual,  at  last  the  sole  support  of  the  Empire,  in  civil  as  well 
as  in  external  strife. 

Thus  in  many  ways  was  the  old  antagonism  broken 
down  —  Romans  admitting  barbarians  to  rank  and  office, 
barbarians  catching  something  of  the  manners  and  culture 
of  their  neighbours.  And  thus  when  the  final  movement 
came,  and  the  Teutonic  tribes  slowly  established  them- 
selves through  the  provinces,  they  entered  not  as  savage 
strangers,  but  as  settlers  knowing  something  of  the  system 
into  which  they  came,  and  not  unwilling  to  be  considered 
its  members  ;  despising  the  degenerate  provincials  who 
struck  no  blow  in  their  own  defence,  but  full  of  respect 
for  the  majestic  power  which  had  for  so  many  centuries 
confronted  and  instructed  them. 

Their  feel-          Great  during  all  these  ages,  but  greatest  when  they  were 
^heRwmn*    actuallv  traversing  and  settling  down  in  the  Empire,  must 
Empire.         have  been  the  impression  which  its  elaborate  machinery 
of   government   and  mature   civilization    made   upon   the 
minds  of  the  Northern  invaders.     With  arms  whose  fabri- 
cation they  had  learned  from  their  foes,  these  children 
the  forest  conquered  well-tilled  fields,  and  entered  towi 
whose  busy  workshops,  marts  stored  with  the  productioi 
of   distant   countries,  and  palaces  rich  in   monuments 

d  Not  the  consulship  itself,  but  the  ornamenta  consularia.  An  Aquitanij 
chieftain  was  legate  of  Central  Gaul  (Lugdunensis)  under  the  name  of  Julii 
Vindex  in  A.D.  68. 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  1 7 

art,  equally  roused  their  wonder.  To  the  beauty  of  statuary  CHAP.  in. 
or  painting  they  might  often  be  blind,  but  the  rudest  mind 
must  have  been  awed  by  the  massive  piles  with  which 
vanity  or  devotion,  or  the  passion  for  amusement,  had 
adorned  Milan  and  Verona,  Aries,  Treves,  and  Bordeaux. 
A  deeper  awe  would  strike  them  as  they  gazed  on  the 
crowding  worshippers  and  stately  ceremonial  of  Christian- 
ity, most  unlike  their  own  rude  sacrifices.  The  exclama- 
tion of  the  Goth  Athanarich,  when  led  into  the  market-place 
of  Constantinople,  may  stand  for  the  feelings  of  his  nation  : 
'  Without  doubt  the  Emperor  is  a  God  upon  earth,  and  he 
who  attacks  him  is  guilty  of  his  own  blood.' e 

The  social  and  political  system,  with  its  cultivated  lan- 
guage and  literature,  into  which  they  came,  would  impress 
fewer  of  the  conquerors,  but  by  those  few  would  be  ad- 
mired beyond  all  else.  Its  regular  organization  supplied 
what  they  most  needed  and  could  least  construct  for  them- 
selves, and  hence  it  was  that  the  greatest  among  them 
were  the  most  desirous  to  preserve  it.  Except  Attila  the 
Hun,  there  is  among  these  terrible  hosts  no  destroyer; 
the  wish  of  each  leader  is  to  maintain  the  existing  order, 
to  spare  life,  to  respect  every  work  of  skill  and  labour, 
above  all  to  perpetuate  the  methods  of  Roman  administra-  Their  desire 
tion,  and  rule  the  people  as  the  deputy  or  successor  of  *°Preserve 
their  Emperor.  Titles  conferred  by  him  were  the  highest 
honours  they  knew :  they  were  also  the  only  means  of  ac- 
quiring something  like  a  legal  grant  of  authority,  a  claim 
to  the  obedience  of  the  provincial  subject,  and  of  turning 
a  patriarchal  or  military  chieftainship  into  the  regular 
sway  of  an  hereditary  monarch.  Civilis  had  long  since 
endeavoured  to  govern  his  Batavians  as  a  Roman  general/ 
Alarich  became  master-general  of  the  armies  of  Illyricum. 
Clovis  exulted  in  the  bestowal  of  an  honorary  consulship ; 

e  Jordanes,  De  Rebus  Geticis,  cap.  28.  f  Tac.  Hist,  i  and  iv. 

C 


1 8  THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

CHAP.  in.  his  grandson  Theodebert  addresses  the  Emperor  Justinian 
as  '  Father.' g  Sigismund  the  Burgundian  king,  created 
count  and  patrician  by  the  Emperor  Anastasius,  professed 
the  deepest  gratitude  and  the  firmest  faith  to  that  Eastern 
court,  which  was  powerless  to  help  or  to  hurt  him.  '  My 
people  is  yours/  he  writes,  'and  to  rule  them  delights  me 
less  than  to  serve  you  ;  the  hereditary  devotion  of  my  race 
to  Rome  has  made  us  account  those  the  highest  honours 
which  your  military  titles  convey ;  we  have  always  pre- 
ferred what  an  Emperor  gave  to  all  that  our  ancestors  could 
bequeath.  In  ruling  our  nation  we  hold  ourselves  but  your 
lieutenants  :  you,  whose  divinely-appointed  sway  no  barrier 
bounds,  whose  beams  shine  from  the  Bosphorus  into  distant 
Gaul,  employ  us  to  administer  the  remoter  regions  of  your 
Empire  :  your  world  is  our  fatherland.'  h 

A  contemporary  historian  has  recorded  the  remarkable 
disclosure  of  his  own  thoughts  and  purposes,  made  by  one 
of  the  ablest  of  the  barbarian  chieftains,  Athaulf  the  West 
Goth,  the  brother-in-law  and  successor  of  Alarich.  '  It 
was  at  first  my  wish  to  destroy  the  Roman  name,  and  erect 
in  its  place  a  Gothic  empire,  taking  to  myself  the  place  and 
the  powers  of  Caesar  Augustus.  But  when  experience 
taught  me  that  the  untameable  barbarism  of  the  Goths  would 
not  suffer  them  to  live  beneath  the  sway  of  law,  and  that 
to  abolish  the  laws  on  which  the  state  rests  would  destroy 
the  state  itself,  I  chose  the  glory  of  renewing  and  main- 
taining by  Gothic  strength  the  fame  of  Rome,  desiring  to 
go  down  to  posterity  as  the  restorer  of  that  Roman  power 

8  *  Praecellentissimo  Domino  et  Patri.'  —  Letters  printed  in  Dom  Bouquet, 
iv,  Epp.  15  and  16. 

h  Letter  printed  among  the  works  of  Avitus,  Bishop  of  Vienne  (Migne's 
Patrologia,  vol.  lix.  p.  285). 

This  letter  is  obviously  the  composition  not  of  Sigismund  himself,  but  of 
Avitus,  writing  on  Sigismund's  behalf.  But  this  makes  it  scarcely  less  valu- 
able evidence  of  the  feelings  of  the  time. 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  19 

which   I  could  not  replace.     Wherefore  I  avoid  war  and  CHAP.  in. 
strive  for  peace.' i 

The  records  of  the  time,  scanty  as  they  are,  shew  us 
how  valuable  was  the  experience  of  Roman  officials  to 
princes  who  from  leaders  of  tribes  had  become  rulers  of 
wide  lands ;  and  in  particular  how  indispensable  the  aid  of 
the  Christian  bishops,  the  intellectual  aristocracy  of  their 
new  subjects,  whose  advice  could  alone  guide  the  policy  of 
the  conqueror  and  secure  the  good-will  of  the  vanquished. 
Not  only  is  this  true  ;  it  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  truth, 
one  form  of  that  manifold  and  overpowering  influence 
which  the  old  system  exercised  over  the  intruding  stran- 
gers not  less  than  over  its  own  children.  For  it  is  hardly 
too  much  to  say  that  the  thought  of  antagonism  to  the 
Empire  and  the  wish  to  extinguish  it  never  crossed  the 
mind  of  the  barbarians.3  The  conception  of  that  Empire 
was  too  universal,  too  august,  too  enduring.  It  was  every- 
where around  them,  and  they  could  remember  no  time 
when  it  had  not  been  so.  It  had  no  association  of  people 
or  place  whose  fall  could  seem  to  involve  that  of  the  whole 
fabric ;  it  had  that  connection  with  the  Christian  Church 
which  made  it  all-embracing  and  venerable. 

1  '  Referre  solitus  est  (sc.  Ataulphus)  se  in  primis  ardenter  inhiasse :  ut 
obliterate  Romanorum  nomine  Romanum  omne  solum  Gothorum  imperium 
et  faceret  et  vocaret:  essetque,  ut  vulgariter  loquar,  Gothia  quod  Romania 
fuisset;  fieretque  nunc  Ataulphus  quod  quondam  Caesar  Augustus.  At  ubi 
multa  experientia  probavisset,  neque  Gothos  ullo  modo  parere  legibus  posse 
propter  effrenatam  barbariem,  neque  reipublicae  interdici  leges  oportere  sine 
quibus  respublica  non  est  respublica,  elegisse  se  saltern,  ut  gloriam  sibi  de 
restituendo  in  integrum  augendoque  Romano  nomine  Gothorum  viribus  quae- 
'  reret,  habereturque  apud  posteros  Romanae  restitutionis  auctor  postquam 
1  esse  non  potuerat  immutator.  Ob  hoc  abstinere  a  bello,  ob  hoc  inhiare  paci 
nitebatur.'  —  Orosius,  vii.  43. 

J  Athaulf  formed  only  to  abandon  it. 

When  in  A.D.  587  Reccared,  king  of  the  West  Goths  of  Spain,  renounced 
Arianism  to  adopt  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Empire,  he  called  himself  Flavius. 


20 


THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


CHAP.  III. 

The  belief  in 
its  eternity. 


There  were  especially  two  ideas  whereon  it  rested,  an< 
from  which  it  obtained  a  peculiar  strength  and  a  peculi; 
direction.  The  one  was  the  belief  that  as  the  dominion  of 
Rome  was  universal,  so  must  it  be  eternal.  Nothing  like 
it  had  been  seen  before.  The  empire  of  Alexander  had 
lasted  a  short  lifetime ;  and  within  its  wide  compass  were 
included  many  arid  wastes,  and  many  tracts  where  none 
but  the  roving  savage  had  ever  set  foot.  That  of  the 
Italian  city  had  for  fourteen  generations  embraced  all 
the  most  wealthy  and  populous  regions  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  had  laid  the  foundations  of  its  power  so  deep 
that  they  seemed  destined  to  last  for  ever.  If  Rome  moved 
slowly  for  a  time,  her  foot  was  always  planted  firmly  :  the 
ease  and  swiftness  of  her  later  conquests  proved  the 
solidity  of  the  earlier;  and  to  her,  more  justly  than  to  his 
own  city,  might  the  boast  of  the  Athenian  statesman  be 
applied :  that  she  advanced  farthest  in  prosperity,  and  in 
adversity  drew  back  the  least.  From  the  end  of  the 
republican  period  her  poets,  her  orators,  her  jurists,  ceased 
not  to  repeat  the  claim  of  world-dominion,  and  confidently 
predict  its  eternity.k  The  proud  belief  of  his  countrymen: 
which  Virgil  had  expressed  — 

'  His  ego  nee  metas  rerum,  nee  tempora  pono  : 
Imperium  sine  fine  dedi '  — 

was  shared  by  the  early  Christians  when  they  prayed  for 
the  persecuting  power  whose  fall  would  bring  Antichi 
upon  earth.     Lactantius  (a  contemporary  of  Constantim 
writes:    'When  Rome  the  head  of  the  world  shall  ha-\ 
fallen,  who  can  doubt   that  the  end  is  come  of  hum; 

k  See,  among  other  passages,  Varro,  De  lingua  Latina,  iv.  34 ;  Cic.  Pro  Dor 
335  Virg.  Aen.  ix.  448;  Hor.  Od.  iii.  30.  8;  Tibull.  ii.  5.  23;  Ovid,  Am.  i.  15. 
Trist.  iii.  7.  51 ;  and  cf.  the  Digest  of  Justinian,  book  xiv.  2.  9 ;  and  i.  i.  33  ('  Ror 
communis  nostra  patria').     The  phrase  'urbs  aeterna'  appears  in  a  constitute 
issued  by  Valentinian  III  (Nov.  Valent.  17). 

Tertullian  speaks  of  Rome  as  '  civitas  sacrosancta.' 


THE   BARBARIAN    INVASIONS 


21 


things,  aye,  of  the  earth  itself.  She,  she  alone  is  the  state  CHAP.  HI. 
by  which  all  things  are  upheld  even  until  now;  wherefore 
let  us  make  prayers  and  supplications  to  the  God  of 
heaven,  if  indeed  His  decrees  and  His  purposes  can  be 
delayed,  that  that  hateful  tyrant  come  not  sooner  than  we 
look  for,  he  for  whom  are  reserved  fearful  deeds,  who 
shall  pluck  out  that  eye  in  whose  extinction  the  world  it- 
self shall  perish/  l  With  the  triumph  of  Christianity  this 
belief  had  found  a  new  basis.  For  as  the  Empire  had 
decayed,  the  Church  had  grown  stronger :  and  now  while 
the  one,  trembling  at  the  approach  of  the  destroyer,  saw 
province  after  province  torn  away,  the  other,  rising  in 
stately  youth,  prepared  to  fill  her  place  and  govern  in  her 
name,  and  in  doing  so,  to  adopt  and  sanctify  and  propa- 
gate anew  the  notion  of  a  universal  and  unending  state. 

The  second  chief  element  in  this  conception  was  the  Sanctity  of 
association  of  such  a  state  with  its  absolute  and  irrespon-  the  imPertal 
sible  head,  the  Emperor.  The  hatred  to  the  name  of 
King,  which  their  earliest  political  struggles  had  left  in 
the  Romans,  by  attaching  to  their  ruler  a  new  and  strange 
title,  marked  him  off  from  all  the  other  sovereigns  of  the 
world.  To  the  provincials  especially  he  became  an  awful 
impersonation  of  the  great  machine  of  government  which 
moved  above  and  around  them.  It  was  not  merely  that 
he  was,  like  a  modern  king,  the  centre  of  power  and  the 
dispenser  of  honour :  his  pre-eminence,  broken  by  no 
comparison  with  other  princes,  by  the  ascending  ranks  of 
no  titled  aristocracy,  had  in  it  something  almost  super- 
natural. The  right  of  legislation  had  become  vested  in 
him  alone :  the  decrees  of  the  people,  and  resolutions  of 
the  senate,  and  edicts  of  the  magistrates  were,  during  the 
last  three  centuries,  replaced  by  imperial  '  Constitutions  ' ; 
his  domestic  council,  the  Consistory,  was  the  supreme 

1  See  Note  I  at  the  end. 


22  THE   HOLY  ROMAN   EMPIRE 

CHAP.  in.  court  of  appeal ;  his  interposition,  like  that  of  some  terres- 
trial Providence,  was  invoked,  and  legally  provided  so  to 
be,  to  reverse  or  overleap  the  ordinary  rules  of  law.m 
From  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar  and  Augustus  his  person 
had  been  hallowed  by  the  office  of  chief  pontiff11  and  the 
tribunician  power;  to  swear  by  his  head  was  considered 
the  most  solemn  of  all  oaths;0  his  effigy  was  sacred,p 
even  on  a  coin ;  to  him  or  to  his  Genius  temples  were 
erected  and  divine  honours  paid  while  he  lived ; q  and 
when,  as  it  was  expressed,  he  ceased  to  be  among  men, 
the  title  of  Divus  was  accorded  to  him,  after  a  solemn 
consecration/  In  the  confused  multiplicity  of  mytholo- 
gies, the  worship  of  the  Emperor  was  the  only  worship 
common  to  the  whole  Roman  world,  and  was  therefore 

m  For  example,  by  the  '  restitutio  natalium,'  and  the  '  adrogatio  per  rescrip- 
tum  principis,'  or,  as  it  is  expressed,  '  per  sacrum  oraculum.' 

n  Even  the  Christian  Emperors  took  the  title  of  Pontifex  Maximus,  till 
Gratian  refused  it  as  unlawful :  adtpiffTov  elvcu  Xpio-Tidvy  rb  o"%^a  vo/j.l<ras. 
—  Zosimus,  lib.  iv.  cap.  36.  Pope  Gelasius  I  {Tractat.  iv.  n),  noting  that 
Melchizedek  had  been  both  king  and  priest,  says  that  the  Devil  imitated  this 
arrangement  when  he  made  the  Roman  Emperors  chief  pontiffs;  but  when 
Christ  the  true  King  and  Priest  came,  He  provided  that  the  two  offices 
should  be  thereafter  distinct. 

0  '  Maiore  formidine  et  callidiore  timiditate  Caesarem  observatis  quam 
ipsum  ex  Olympo  lovem,  et  merito,  si  sciatis.  .  .  .  Citius  denique  apud  vos 
per  omnes  Deos  quam  per  unum  genium  Caesaris  peieratur.' — Tertull. 
Apolog.  c.  xxviii. 

Cf.  Zos.  v.  51 :  el  fjitv  7<i/>  Trpbs  rbv  debv  rervx^Kei  di86/j.ei>os  5/>/cos,  f)v  &v  ws 
elKbs  iraptdeiv  tvdtdojras  ry  TOV  deov  (friXavOpWTrtq.  TTJV  tirl  TTJ  affefidq. 
ftyv.     tird  d£  /card  TTJJ  TOV  /SacrtX^ws  6/jui)/j,6K€(rav  K€(f>a\TJs,  OVK 
avrois  fts  rbv  TCHTOVTOV  SpKov 

P  Tac.  Ann.  i.  73;   iii.  38,  etc. 

«  It  is  curious  that  this  should  have  begun  in  the  first  years  of  the  Empire. 
See,  among  other  passages  that  might  be  cited  from  the  Augustan  poets, 
Virg.  Georg.  i.  24;  iv.  560;  Hor.  Od.  iii.  3.  II;  Ovid,  Epp.  ex  Ponto,  iv.  9. 
105. 

r  Hence  Vespasian's  dying  jest,  '  Ut  puto,  deus  fio.'  The  title  was  not 
conferred  upon  Emperors  of  evil  memory. 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  23 

that  usually  proposed  as  a  test  to  the  Christians  on  their  CHAP.  in. 
trial.  Under  the  new  religion  the  form  of  adoration  van- 
ished, the  sentiment  of  reverence  remained  :  and  the  right 
to  control  the  Church  as  well  as  the  State,  admitted  by 
the  bishops  assembled  in  the  first  oecumenical  council  at 
Nicaea,  and  frequently  exercised  by  the  sovereigns  of  Con- 
stantinople, made  the  Emperor  hardly  less  essential  to  the 
new  conception  of  a  world-wide  Christian  monarchy  than 
he  had  been  to  the  military  despotism  of  old. 

These  considerations  explain  why  the  men  of  the  fifth 
century,  clinging  to  preconceived  ideas,  and  filled  with  the 
belief,  drawn  from  Jewish  prophecy,  that  the  great  Fourth 
Kingdom  was  to  last  till  the  end  of  the  world,  refused  to 
believe  in  that  dissolution  of  the  Empire  which  they  saw 
with  their  own  eyes.  Because  it  could  not  die,  it  lived. 
And  there  was  in  the  slowness  of  the  change  and  its 
external  aspect,  as  well  as  in  the  fortunes  of  the  capital, 
something  to  favour  the  illusion.  The  Roman  name  was 
shared  by  every  subject;  the  Roman  city  was  no  longer 
the  seat  of  government,  nor  did  her  capture  extinguish 
the  imperial  power,  for  the  maxim  was  now  accepted, 
Where  the  Emperor  is,  there  is  Rome.8  But  her  con- 
tinued existence,  not  permanently  occupied  by  any  con- 
queror, striking  the  nations  with  an  awe  which  the  history 
or  the  external  splendours  of  Constantinople,  Milan,  or 
Ravenna  could  nowise  inspire,  was  an  ever  new  assertion 
of  the  endurance  of  the  Roman  race  and  dominion.  Dis- 
honoured and  defenceless,  the  spell  of  her  name  was  still 
strong  enough  to  arrest  the  conqueror  in  the  moment  of 
triumph.  The  irresistible  impulse  that  drew  Alarich  was 
one  of  glory  or  revenge,  not  of  destruction  :  the  Hun 
turned  back  from  Aquileia  with  a  vague  fear  upon  him  : 
the  Ostrogoth  adorned  and  protected  his  splendid  prize. 

•  STTOU  &v  6  /3a(riXei>5  77,  6cet  17  'PUJJUTJ —  says  Herodian. 


THE   HOLY   ROMAN    EMPIRE 


the  Western 
Empire. 
A.D.  408. 


CHAP.  in.  In  the  history  of  the  last  days  of  the  Western  Empire, 
Last  days  of  two  points  deserve  special  remark:  its  continued  union 
with  the  Eastern  branch,  and  the  way  in  which  its  ideal 
dignity  was  respected  while  its  representatives  were  de- 
spised. Stilicho  was  the  last  statesman  who  could  have 
saved  it.  After  his  death,  and  after  the  City  had  been 
captured  by  Alarich  in  A.D.  410,  the  fall  of  the  Western 
throne,  though  delayed  for  two  generations  by  traditional 
reverence,  became  practically  certain.  While  one  by  one 
the  provinces  were  abandoned  by  the  central  government, 
left  either  to  be  occupied  by  invading  tribes  or  to  main- 
tain a  precarious  independence,  like  Britain  and  the  Armo- 
rican  cities,  by  means  of  municipal  unions,  Italy  lay  at  the 
mercy  of  the  barbarian  auxiliaries  and  was  governed  by 
their  leaders.  The  degenerate  line  of  Theodosius  might 
have  seemed  to  reign  by  hereditary  right,  but  after  their 
extinction  in  Valentinian  III  it  was  from  the  haughty 
Ricimer,  general  of  the  barbarian  troops,  that  each  phan- 
tom Emperor —  Maximus,  Avitus,  Majorian,  Anthemius, 
Olybrius  —  received  the  purple  only  to  be  stripped  of  it 
when  he  presumed  to  forget  his  dependence.  Though  the 
division  between  Arcadius  and  Honorius  had  definitely 
severed  the  two  realms  for  administrative  purposes,  they 
were  still  deemed  to  constitute  a  single  Empire,  and  the 
rulers  of  the  East  interfered  more  than  once  to  raise  to  the 
Western  throne  princes  they  could  not  protect  upon  it. 
Ricimer's  insolence  quailed  before  the  shadowy  grandeur  of 
the  imperial  title :  his  ambition,  and  that  of  Gundobald  his 
successor,  were  bounded  by  the  name  of  Patrician.  The 
bolder  genius  of  Odoacer,1  commander  of  the  barbarian 

*  Odoacer  or  Odovacar,  as  it  seems  his  name  ought  to  be  written,  is  usu- 
ally, but  incorrectly,  described  as  a  King  of  the  Heruli,  who  led  his  people 
into  Italy  and  overthrew  the  Empire  of  the  West;  others  call  him  King  of 
the  Rugii,  or  Skyrri,  or  Turcilingi,  or  even  of  the  Goths,  for  the  name  '  Goth ' 
was  sometimes  used  to  denote  the  Teutonic  invaders  generally.  The  truth 


A.D.  395. 


THE   BARBARIAN    INVASIONS  25 

auxiliaries,  resolved  to  abolish  an  empty  pageant,  and  ex-  CHAP.  in. 
tinguish  the  title  and  office  of  Emperor  in  the  West.  Yet 
over  him  too  the  spell  had  power ;  and  as  the  Gaulish 
warrior  had  gazed  on  the  silent  majesty  of  the  senate  in  a 
deserted  city,  so  the  Herulian  revered  the  power  before 
which  the  world  had  bowed,  and  though  there  was  no  force 
to  check  or  to  affright  him,  shrank  from  grasping  in  his 
own  barbarian  hand  the  sceptre  of  the  Caesars.  When,  at  its  extinction 
Odoacer's  bidding,  Romulus,  nicknamed  Augustulus,  the  by  Odoacer> 
boy  whom  a  whim  of  fate  had  chosen  to  be  the  last 
native  Caesar  of  Rome,  had  formally  announced  his  resig- 
nation to  the  senate,  a  deputation  from  that  body  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Eastern  court  to  lay  the  insignia  of  royalty 
at  the  feet  of  the  reigning  Emperor  Zeno.-  The  West, 
they  declared,  no  longer  required  an  Emperor  of  its  own  : 
one  monarch  sufficed  for  the  world  ;  Odoacer  was  qualified 
by  his  wisdom  and  courage  to  be  the  protector  of  their 
state,  and  upon  him  Zeno  was  entreated  to  confer  the  title 
of  Patrician  and  the  administration  of  the  Italian  pro- 
vinces.11 The  Emperor,  though  he  reminded  the  Senate 
that  their  request  ought  rather  to  have  been  made  to  the 
lately  dispossessed  Western  Emperor  Julius  Nepos,  granted 
what  he  could  not  refuse,  and  wrote  to  Odoacer,  address- 
seems  to  be  that  he  was  not  a  king  at  all,  but  the  son  of  a  Skyrrian  chieftain 

>  (Edecon,  possibly  the  same  Edecon  as  the  one  whom  Attila  sent  as  an  envoy 

>  to  Constantinople),  whose  personal  merits  made  him  chosen  by  the  barbarian 
auxiliaries  to  be  their  leader.    The  Skyrri  were  a  small  tribe,  apparently  akin 
to  the  more  powerful  Heruli,  whose  name  is  often  extended  to  them. 

u  Afryovo-Tos  6  'Optffrov   vibs  d/co^ras   Z^z/wva  ird\iv  ri]v  J3a<ri\elai>  dra/ce- 

KTr)<r6a.i.  XT}?   £a>.  .   .   .      rjvdyKcure  TTJV   fiovXyv   airovTeiXai.  Trpecr^eiav  Z-^vuvi 

'  ffi}fj.atvov(rav  us  t'Sias  p.ev  ai/rots  (3a<ri\eia.s  ov  Stoi,  KOIVOS  d£  diroxpfoei  /J.6vos 

&v  avTOKpdrwp  £TT'    dfj-fportpois  ro?s  irtpaffi.     rbv  /j-evroi  'OSbaxov  vtr'  avrwv 

7r/50|8e/3X77cr#cu  IKO.VOV  6vra  (rufeiv  TO.  Trap  avrols  Trpdy/j-ara  Tro\iTiK7]t>  tx&v  vovv 

)  leal  ativeffiv  6/ioO  Ka.1  ^.d%t/aoi',  /cat  5e?<r0cu  TOV  Zrjvuvos  ira.Tpi.KLov  re  a.vr$  diro- 

j  aTe?Xcu  d£lav  icai  TTJV  TWV  'Ird\<av  TOVT<£  £<peTvai  5ioiicr)(nv. —  Corp.  Scr.  Hist* 

I  Byzant.,  vol.  xix.  p.  235  (Excerpta  e  Malchi  Hist.}. 


26  THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

CHAP.  in.      ing   him   as    Patrician.       Assuming   the   title    of    King,3 
Odoacer  continued  the  consular  office,  respected  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  institutions  of   his  subjects,  and   rulec 
for  fourteen  years  under  the  nominal  suzerainty  of   tl 
Eastern  Emperor.7      There  was  thus  legally  no  extinctk 
of  the  Western  Empire  at  all,  but  only  a  reunion  of  E; 
and  West.     In  form,  and  to  some  extent  also  in  the  beliei 
of  men,  things  now  reverted  to  their  state  during  the  firsl 
two  centuries  of  the  Empire,  save  that  New  Rome  on  th< 
Bosphorus  instead  of   Old  Rome  on   the  Tiber  was    tl 
centre  of  the  civil  government.     The  joint  tenancy  whicl 
had  been  conceived  by  Diocletian,  carried  further  by  Con- 
stantine,  renewed  under  Valentinian  I  and   again  at  thei 
death  of  Theodosius,  had  come  to  an  end;  once  more  did 
a  single  Emperor  sway  the  sceptre  of  the  world,  and  head 
an  undivided  Catholic  Church.     To  those  who  lived  at  thej 
time,  this  year  (A.D.  476)  was  no  such  epoch  as  it  has  since^ 
become,  nor  was  any  impression   made   on   men's  minds 
commensurate  with  the  real  significance  of  the  event.     It 
is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  striking  instances  in  history  oft 
a  change  whose  magnitude  was  not  perceived  until  long 
after  it  occurred.     For  though  the  cessation  of  an  Em- 
peror reigning  in  the  West  did  not  destroy  the  Empire  in\ 
idea,  nor  wholly  even  in  fact,  its  consequences  were  from 
the  first  immense.     It  hastened   the  developement  of  a 
Latin  as  opposed  to  Greek  and  Oriental  forms  of  Christ 
anity :  it  emancipated  the  Popes  :  it  gave  a  new  charact< 

r  Not  king  of  Italy,  as  is  often  said.     The  barbarian  kings  did  not 
several   centuries    employ   territorial    titles;    Rex  Angliae   is    not   seen   ti 
Henry  I:  Rex  Frandae  not  till  Henry  IV  (of  France),  and  Jordanes  ai 
Cassiodorus  tell  us  that  Odoacer  never  so  much  as  assumed  the  insignia 
royalty;   but  there  is  a  coin  on  which  he  appears  as  '  rex.' 

y  As  to  Odoacer  and  the  occurrences  of  A.D.  476,  cf.  Hodgkin,  Italy 
her  Invaders,  vol.  ii.  p.  518  sqq. 

*  Statues  of  Zeno  as  reigning  Emperor  were  set  up  in  Rome. 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS 


to  the  projects  and  government  of  the  Teutonic  rulers  of  CHAP.  in. 
the  Western  countries.     But  the  importance  of  remember- 
ing its  formal  aspect  to  those  who  witnessed  it  will  be  felt 
as  we  approach  the  era  when  the  Empire  was  revived  by 
Charles  the  Frank. 

Odoacer's  monarchy  was  not  more  oppressive  than  were  Odoacer. 
those  of  the  barbarian  kings  who  were  reigning  in  Gaul, 
Spain,  and  Africa.  But  the  confederated  mercenary  troops 
who  supported  it  were  a  loose  swarm  of  predatory  tribes : 
themselves  without  cohesion,  they  could  take  no  firm 
root  in  Italy.  Under  his  rule  no  progress  seems  to  have 
been  made  towards  the  reorganization  of  society ;  and 
the  first  real  attempt  to  blend  the  peoples  and  maintain 
the  traditions  of  Roman  wisdom  in  the  hands  of  a  new 
and  vigorous  race  was  reserved  for  a  more  famous  chief- 
tain, the  greatest  of  all  the  barbarian  conquerors,  the  fore- 
runner of  the  first  barbarian  Emperor,  Theodorich  the 
Ostrogoth.  The  aim  of  his  reign,  though  he  professed  Theodorich 
deference  to  the  Eastern  court  which  had  favoured  the  AJX493- 
invasion  in  which  he  overthrew  Odoacer,  and  whose  titular 
supremacy  he  did  not  reject,a  was  the  establishment  of 
what  would  have  become  a  national  monarchy  in  Italy. 
Brought  up  as  a  hostage  in  the  court  of  Constantinople, 
he  learned  to  know  the  advantages  of  an  orderly  and  cul- 
tivated society  and  the  principles  by  which  it  must  be 
maintained ;  called  in  early  manhood  to  roam  as  a  warrior- 
chief  over  the  plains  of  the  Danube,  he  acquired  along 
with  the  arts  of  command  a  sense  of  the  superiority  of 

a  '  Nil  deest  nobis  imperio  vestro  famulantibus,'  writes  Theodorich  to 
Zeno :  So  to  Anastasius  I,  '  Pati  vos  non  credimus  inter  utrasque  respublicas 
quarum  semper  unum  corpus  sub  antiquis  principiis  fuisse  declaratur  aliquid 
discordiae  permanere.  .  .  .  Romani  regni  unum  velle,  una  semper  opinio  sit' 
(Cassiod.  Variar.  i.  i).  Cf.  Jordanes,  De  A}el>us  Geticis,  cap.  57.  So  in  a 
letter  to  the  Emperor  Anastasius  '  Regnum  nostrum  imitatio  vestri '  (Cassiod. 
Variar.  i.  i). 


28  THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

CHAP.  in.  his  own  people  in  valour  and  energy  and  truth.  When 
the  defeat  and  death  of  Odoacer  had  left  both  Italy  and 
Sicily  at  his  mercy,  he  sought  no  further  conquest,  easy 
as  it  would  have  been  to  tear  away  new  provinces  from 
the  Eastern  realm,  but  strove  only  to  preserve  and 
strengthen  the  ancient  polity  of  Rome,  to  breathe  into 
her  decaying  institutions  the  spirit  of  a  fresh  life,  and 
without  endangering  the  military  supremacy  of  his  own 
Goths,  to  conciliate  by  indulgence  and  gradually  raise  to 
the  level  of  their  masters  the  degenerate  population  of 
Italy.  The  Gothic  nation  appears  from  the  first  less  cruel 
in  war  and  more  sage  in  council  than  any  of  their  Ger- 
manic brethren  : b  all  that  was  noble  among  them  shone 
forth  now  in  the  rule  of  the  greatest  of  the  Amals.  From 
his  palace  at  Verona,c  commemorated  in  the  song  of  the 
Nibelungs,  he  issued  equal  laws  for  Roman  and  Goth,  and 
bade  the  intruder,  if  he  must  occupy  part  of  the  lands,  at 
least  respect  the  goods  and  the  person  of  his  fellow  sub- 
ject. Jurisprudence  and  administration  remained  in  native 
hands  :  two  annual  consuls,  one  named  by  Theodorich,  the 
other  by  the  Eastern  monarch,  presented  an  image  of  the 
ancient  state ;  and  while  agriculture  and  the  arts  revived 
in  the  provinces,  Rome  herself  celebrated  the  visits  of  a 
master  who  provided  for  the  wants  of  her  people  and  pre- 
served with  care  the  monuments  of  her  former  splendour.d 
With  peace  and  plenty  men's  minds  took  hope,  and  the 
study  of  letters  revived.  The  last  gleam  of  classical  litera- 
ture gilds  the  reign  of  the  barbarian. 

By  the  consolidation  of  the  two  races  under  one  wise 

b  '  Unde  et  paene  omnibus  barbaris  Gothi  sapientiores  exstiterunt  Graecis- 
que  paene  consimiles.'  —  Jord.  cap.  5. 

c  See  Note  II  at  the  end. 

d  He  restored  some  of  the  buildings  which  were  already  falling  to  ruin  in 
the  Roman  Forum.  Bricks  stamped  with  his  name  were  found  in  1902  near 
the  south-west  end  of  the  recently  uncovered  floor  of  the  Basilica  Aemilia. 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  29 

government,   Italy  might  have  been   spared  six  hundred  CHAP.  in. 
years  of  gloom  and  degradation.     It  was  not    so    to  be. 
Theodorich   was    tolerant,    but    toleration    was   itself    an 
offence  in  the  eyes  of  his   orthodox  subjects  :  the  Arian 
Goths  were  and  remained  strangers  and  enemies  among 
the  Catholic   Italians.     Scarcely  had  the  sceptre  passed 
from   the  hands  of  Theodorich  to  his  weaker  offspring, 
when  Justinian,  who  had  viewed  with  jealousy  the  great- 
ness of  his  nominal  lieutenant,  determined  to  assert  his 
dormant  rights  over  Italy  and  Sicily  ;  its  people  welcomed  Italy  and 
Belisarius  as  a  deliverer,  and  in  the  long  struggle  that  Sicily  con~ 
followed  the  race  and  name  of  the  Ostrogoths  perished  ^stinian, 
for  ever.     Thus  again  reunited  in  fact,  as  it  had  been  all  A.D.  535- 
the  while  united  in   theory,  to  the  Roman  Empire,  Italy  S53' 
was  divided  into  counties  and  dukedoms,  and  obeyed  the 
exarch  of  Ravenna,  viceroy  of  the  East  Roman  court,  till 
the  arrival  of  the  Lombards  in  A.D.  568  drove  him  from 
some  districts,  and  left  him  only  a  feeble  authority  over 
the  Eastern  and  Southern  parts  of  the  peninsula. 

Beyond  the  Alps,  though   the   Roman  population  had    Thetrans- 
by  this  time  ceased  to  seek  help  from   the  Eastern   sov-  alPine^°' 

.  .  wnces. 

ereigns,  the  Empire's  rights  were  still  deemed  to  subsist, 
though  as  respects  Gaul  they  were  deemed  to  have  been 
yielded  by  Justinian  to  the  Franks.6  As  has  been  said, 

e  Procopius  tells  us  that  when  the  Ostrogoths  found  themselves  unable  to 
defend  their  territories  in  South-eastern  Gaul,  they  yielded  these  to  Theode- 
bert,  king  of  the  Franks,  who  thereupon  obtained  a  confirmation  of  his 
possession  from  Justinian.  Thus  the  barbarians  obtained  Marseilles,  and 
celebrated  at  Aries  the  equestrian  contest,  probably  the  Indus  Troianus, 
which  had  been  instituted  by  Augustus,  Kal  vvv  KdOyvrat  ^v  ei>  T%  'ApeXdry 
rbv  iinriKbv  dyuva  de^^evoi  {Bell.  Goth.  iii.  33).  He  adds  that  the  Franks 
did  not  think  their  acquisition  of  Gaul  secure  until  it  had  been  formally  rati- 
fied by  the  Emperor. 

The  (almost  contemporary)  Life  of  St.  Trevirius  says  that  the  saint  lived  *  eo 
tempore  quo  Gallia  sub  imperii  iure  lustini  consulis  (the  Emperor  Justin  I) 
exstitit,'  and  refers  to  the  reign  of  Theodebert  as  the  time  when  '  reges  Gallia- 


THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


CHAP.  in.  those  rights  had  been  admitted  by  the  conquerors  them- 
selves :  by  Athaulf,  when  he  reigned  in  Aquitaine  as  the 
vicar  of  Honorius,  and  recovered  Spain  from  the  Suevi  to 
restore  it  to  its  ancient  masters ;  by  the  West  Gothic 
kings  of  Spain,  when  they  permitted  the  Mediterranean 
cities  to  send  tribute  to  Constantinople ;  by  Clovis,  when, 
after  the  representatives  of  the  old  government,  Syagrius 
and  the  Armorican  cities,  had  been  conquered  or  absorbed, 
and  the  West  Gothic  kingdom  in  Aquitaine  had  been  over- 
thrown, he  received  with  delight  from  the  Eastern  emperor 
Anastasius  the  grant  of  a  Roman  dignity  to  confirm  his 
possession.  Arrayed  like  a  Fabius  or  Valerius  in  the 
consul's  purple  robe  and  senatorial  chlamys,  the  Sicambrian 
chieftain  rode  through  the  streets  of  Tours,  while  the  shout 
of  the  provincials  hailed  him  Augustus/  They  already 
obeyed  him,  but  his  power  was  now  legalized  in  their  eyes, 
and  it  was  not  without  a  melancholy  pride  that  they  saw 
the  terrible  conqueror  himself  yield  to  the  spell  of  the 
Roman  name,  and  do  homage  to  the  enduring  majesty  of 
their  legitimate  sovereign. 

Lingering  Yet  the  severed  limbs  of  the  Empire  forgot  by  degrees 

influences        their  original   unity.     As   in  the  breaking  up  of   the  old 
society,  which  we  trace  from  the  sixth  to  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, rudeness  and  ignorance  grew  apace,  as  language  an< 
manners  were   changed   by   the   infiltration   of   Teutonic 
settlers,  as  men's  thoughts  and  hopes  and  interests  were 

rum  Francorumque  suae  ditioni,  sublato  imperii  iure,  gubernacula  ponerent, 
et  sublata  Reipublicae  dominatione,  propria  fruerentur  potestate.'  —  Extract 
from  Vita  S.  Trevir.  in  Dom  Bouquet,  iii.  441. 

f '  Igitur  Chlodovechus  ab  imperatore  Anastasio  codicillos  de  consulatt 
accepit,  et  in  basilica  beati  Martini  tunica  blattea  indutus  est  et  chlamydt 
imponens  vertici  diadema  .  .  .  et  ab  ea  die  tanquam  consul  aut  ( =  et) 
Augustus  est  vocitatus.'  —  Gregory  of  Tours,  ii.  38.  He  may  probably  have 
also  received  the  title  of  Patrician :  a  poem  in  Dom  Bouquet,  ii.  538,  says  of 
him,  '  Patricius  magno  sublimis  fulsit  honore.' 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  31 

narrowed  by  isolation  from  their  fellows,  as  the  organiza-  CHAP.  in. 
tion  of  the  Roman  province  and  the  Germanic  tribe  alike 
dissolved  into  a  chaos  whence  the  new  order  began  to 
shape  itself,  dimly  and  doubtfully  as  yet,  the  memory  of 
the  old  Empire,  its  symmetry,  its  sway,  its  civilization, 
must  needs  wane  and  fade.  It  might  have  perished  alto- 
gether but  for  the  two  enduring  witnesses  Rome  had  left 
—  her  Church  and  her  Law.  The  barbarians  had  at  first  Religion. 
associated  Christianity  with  the  Romans  from  whom  they 
learned  it :  the  Romans  had  used  it  as  their  only  bulwark 
against  oppression.  The  hierarchy  were  the  natural  leaders 
of  the  people,  and  the  necessary  councillors  of  the  king. 
Their  power  grew  with  the  decay  of  civil  government  and 
the  spread  of  superstition  ;  and  when  the  Frank  found  it 
too  valuable  to  be  abandoned  to  the  vanquished  people, 
he  insensibly  acquired  the  feelings  and  policy  of  the  order 
which  he  entered. 

As  the  Empire  fell  to  pieces,  and  the  new  kingdoms 
which  the  conquerors  had  founded  began  in  their  turn  to 
dissolve,  the  Church  clung  more  closely  to  her  unity  of 
faith  and  discipline,  the  common  bond  of  all  Christian 
men.  That  unity  must  have  a  centre,  that  centre  was 
Rome.  A  succession  of  able  and  zealous  pontiffs  ex- 
tended her  influence  —  the  sanctity  and  the  writings  of 
Gregory  the  Great  were  famous  through  all  the  West. 
Never  permanently  occupied  by  barbarians,  she  retained 
her  peculiar  character  and  customs,  and  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  a  power  over  men's  souls  more  durable  than  that 
which  she  had  lost  over  their  bodies.8  Only  second  in 

&  Even  so  early  as  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  St.  Leo  the  Great  could 
say  to  the  Roman  people,  '  Isti  (sc.  Petrus  et  Paulus)  sunt  qui  te  ad  hanc 
gloriam  provexerunt  ut  gens  sancta,  populus  electus,  civitas  sacerdotalis  et 
regia,  per  sacram  B.  Petri  sedem  caput  orbis  effecta  latius  praesideres  reli- 
gione  divina  quam  dominatione  terrena.'  —  Sermon  on  the  Feast  of  SS.  Peter 
and  Paul.  (Opp.  ap.  Migne,  torn.  i.  p.  336.) 


THE   HOLY  ROMAN   EMPIRE 


CHAP.  in.  importance  to  this  influence  was  that  which  was  exercised 
by  the  permanence  of  the  old  law,  and  of  its  creature  the 
municipal  organization  of  the,  cities.  The  barbarian  inva- 
ders retained  the  customs  of  their  ancestors,  characteristic 
memorials  of  a  rude  people,  as  we  see  them  in  the  Salic 
law  or  in  the  ordinances  of  Ini  and  Alfred.  But  the  sub- 
ject population  and  the  clergy  continued  to  be  governed  by 
that  elaborate  system  which  the  genius  and  labour  of  many 
generations  had  raised  to  be  the  most  lasting  monument 
of  Roman  greatness. 

The  civil  law  had  maintained  itself  in  Spain  and  Southern 
Gaul,  nor  was  it  utterly  forgotten  even  in  the  North,  in 
Britain,  on  the  borders  of  Germany.  Revised  collections 
of  extracts  from  the  Theodosian  Code  and  other  Roman 
law  books  were  issued  by  the  West  Gothic  and  Burgundian 
princes.h  For  some  centuries  it  was  the  patrimony  of  the 
subject  population  everywhere,  and  in  Aquitaine  and  Italy 
has  outlived  feudalism.  The  presumption  that  all  men 
were  to  be  judged  by  it  who  could  not  be  proved  to  be 
subject  to  some  other  law  continued  to  be  accepted  dowi 
to  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages.1  Its  phrases,  its  forms, 
its  courts,  its  subtlety  and  precision,  all  recalled  the  strong 
and  cultivated  society  which  had  produced  it.  Othei 

h  The  Lex  Romana  Burgundionum,  published  by  the  Burgundian  kings 
the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  and  the  Lex  Romana  Visigothorum  (Bre 
viarium  Alaricianunt),  published  in  or  about  A.D.  506,  continued  to  fori 
bodies  of  written  law  which  were  in  use  for  a  long  time,  and  became  the 
kernel  of  the  customary  law  which  grew  up  in  South-eastern  and  Souther 
Gaul. 

Agathias,  writing  at  Constantinople  in  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  sa) 
the  Franks  had  adopted  much  of  the  Roman  administration  and  law,  ot 
701  iroXiretq,  ws  T&  TroXXa  xptDircu  'Pw/xcu/fTj  /cat  vbfjiots  rots  avrois  Kal  ra  AX? 
bfj-oius  d/jufrl  re  rd  <ru/x/36Xota  Kal  yd/j.ovs  Kal  T^V  TOV  6elov  depairclav  vopl 
(Hist.  i.  2). 

1  *  lus  Romanum  est  adhuc  in  viridi  observantia  et  eo  iure  praesumiti 
quilibet  vivere  nisi  adversum  probetur,'  says  Maranta  in  the  sixteenth  centur 


THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS  33 

motives,  as  well  as  those  of  kindness  to  their  subjects,  CHAP.  in. 
made  the  new  kings  favour  it ;  for  it  exalted  their  preroga- 
tive, and  the  submission  enjoined  by  it  on  one  class  of 
their  subjects  soon  came  to  be  demanded  from  the  other, 
by  their  own  Teutonic  customs  almost  the  equals  of  the 
prince.  Considering  attentively  how  many  of  the  old  in- 
stifcutions  continued  to  subsist,  and  studying  the  ideas  of 
that  time,  as  they  are  faintly  preserved  in  its  scanty 
records,  it  seems  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  in  the 
eighth  century  the  Roman  Empire  still  existed  in  the 
West:  existed  in  men's  minds  as  a  power  weakened, 
delegated,  suspended,  but  not  destroyed. 

It  is  easy  for  those  who  read  the  history  of  an  age  in 
the  light  of  those  that  followed  it,  to  perceive  that  in  this 
men  erred ;  that  the  tendency  of  events  was  wholly  dif- 
ferent ;  that  society  had  entered  on  a  new  phase,  wherein 
every  change  did  more  to  localize  authority  and  strengthen 
the  aristocratic  principle  at  the  expense  of  the  despotic. 
We  can  see  that  other  forms  of  life,  more  full  of  promise 
for  the  distant  future,  had  already  begun  to  shew  them- 
selves. They,  with  no  type  of  power  or  beauty  but  that 
which  had  filled  the  imagination  of  their  forefathers,  and 
now  loomed  on  them  grander  than  ever  through  the  mist 
of  centuries,  mistook  (as  did  many  of  the  great  spirits  of 
Italy  down  to  the  days  of  Dante  and  Rienzo)  memories 
for  hopes,  and  sighed  only  for  the  renewal  of  its  strength. 
Events  were  at  hand  by  which  these  hopes  seemed 
destined  to  be  gratified. 


CHAPTER   IV 

RESTORATION    OF    THE   EMPIRE    IN    THE    WEST 

CHAP.  iv.  IT  was  towards  Rome  as  their  ecclesiastical  capital  that 

the  thoughts  and  hopes  of  the  men  of  the  sixth  and 
seventh  centuries  were  constantly  directed.  Yet  not  from 
Rome,  feeble  and  corrupt,  nor  on  the  exhausted  soil  of 
Italy,  was  the  deliverer  to  arise.  Just  when,  as  we  may 
suppose,  the  vision  of  a  renewal  of  imperial  authority  in 
the  Western  provinces  was  beginning  to  vanish  away, 
there  appeared  in  the  furthest  corner  of  Europe,  sprung  of 
a  race  but  lately  brought  within  the  pale  of  civilization,  a 
line  of  chieftains  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  Holy  See, 
and  among  them  one  whose  power,  good  fortune,  and 
heroic  character  pointed  him  out  as  worthy  of  a  dignity 
to  which  doctrine  and  tradition  had  attached  a  sanctity 
almost  divine. 

The  Of  the  new  monarchies  that  had  risen  on  the  ruins  of 

Franks.          Rome,  that  of  the  Franks  was  by  far  the  greatest.     In  the 
third   century  they  appear,  with   Saxons,  Alemanni,  and 
Thuringians,  as  one  of  the  greatest  German  tribe  leagues. 
The  Sicambri  (for  it  seems  probable  that  this  famous  race 
was  a  chief  source  of  the  Prankish  nation)  had  now  laid 
aside  their  former  hostility  to  Rome,  and  her  future  repn 
sentatives  were  thenceforth,  with  few  intervals,  her  faithfi 
allies.     Many  of  their  chiefs  rose  to  high  places  :  Malaricl 
receives  from  Jovian  the  charge  of  the  Western  province* 
Bauto  and  Mellobaudes  figure  in  the  days  of  Theodosii 

34 


THE   EMPIRE   RESTORED    IN   THE   WEST  35 

and  his  sons ;  the  legendary  Merovech  (grandfather  of  CHAP.  IV. 
Clovis,  and  supposed  to  be  the  son  of  a  water-sprite), 
whose  name  has  given  itself  to  the  Merwing  dynasty,  is 
said  to  have  fought  under  Aetius  against  Attila  in  the 
great  battle  of  Chalons ;  his  countrymen  endeavoured  in 
vain  to  save  Gaul  from  the  Suevi  and  Burgundians.  Not 
till  the  Empire  was  evidently  helpless  did  they  claim  a 
share  of  the  booty;  then  Clovis,  or  Chlodovech,  chief 
of  the  Salian  tribe,  leaving  his  kindred  the  Ripuarians  in 
their  seats  on  the  lower  Rhine,  advanced  out  of  Flanders 
to  wrest  Gaul  from  the  barbarian  nations  which  had  en-  A.D.48g. 
tered  it  some  sixty  years  before.  Few  conquerors  have 
had  a  career  of  more  unbroken  success.  By  the  defeat  of 
the  Roman  governor  Syagrius  he  was  left  master  of  the 
Northern  provinces  :  the  Burgundian  kingdom  in  the  valley 
of  the  Rhone  was  in  no  long  time  reduced  to  dependence  : 
last  of  all,  the  West  Gothic  power  was  overthrown  in  one 
great  battle,  and  Aquitaine  added  to  the  dominions  of 
Clovis.  Nor  were  the  Frankish  arms  less  prosperous 
against  the  Germans  who  dwelt  beyond  the  Rhine.  A 
victory  (supposed  to  have  been  won  at  Tolbiac)  led  to  the 
submission  of  the  Alemanni :  their  allies  the  Bavarians 
followed,  and  when  the  Thuringian  power  had  been  broken 
by  Theodorich  I  (son  of  Clovis),  the  Frankish  league  em- 
braced all  the  tribes  of  Western  and  Southern  Germany. 
The  dominion  thus  formed,  stretching  from  the  Bay  of 
Biscay  to  the  Inn  and  the  Ems,  was  of  course  in  no  sense 
a  Gallic  empire.  Nor,  although  the  widest  and  strongest 
monarchy  that  had  yet  been  founded  by  a  Teutonic  race, 
was  it,  under  the  Merovingian  kings,  a  united  kingdom  at 
all,  but  rather  a  congeries  of  principalities,  held  together 
by  the  predominance  of  a  single  tribe  and  a  single  family, 
who  ruled  in  Gaul  as  masters  over  a  subject  race,  and  in 
Germany  exercised  a  sort  of  hegemony  among  kindred  and 


36  THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

CHAP.  IV.  scarcely  inferior  tribes.  But  towards  the  middle  of  the 
eighth  century  a  change  began.  Under  the  rule  of  Pipin 
of  Herstal  and  his  son  Charles  Martel,  mayors  of  the 
palace  to  the  last  feeble  Merovingians,  the  Austrasian 
Franks  in  the  lower  Rhineland  became  acknowledged 
heads  of  the  nation,  and  were  able,  while  establishing  a 
firmer  government  at  home,  to  direct  its  whole  strength 
to  projects  of  foreign  ambition.  The  form  those  projects 
took  arose  from  a  circumstance  which  has  not  yet  been 
mentioned.  It  was  not  solely  or  even  chiefly  to  their  own 
valour  that  the  Franks  owed  their  past  greatness  and  the 
yet  loftier  future  which  awaited  them,  it  was  to  the  friend- 
ship of  the  clergy  and  the  favour  of  the  Apostolic  See. 
The  other  Teutonic  nations,  Goths,  Vandals,  Burgundians, 
Suevians,  Lombards,  had  been  most  of  them  converted  by 
Arian  missionaries  who  proceeded  from  the  Roman  Empire 
during  the  short  period  when  Arian  doctrines  were  in  the 
ascendant.  The  Franks,  who  were  among  the  latest  con- 
verts, were  Catholics  from  the  first,  and  after  the  days  oi 
Clovis,  whom  the  clergy  had  welcomed  as  a  sort  of  new 
Constantine,  gladly  accepted  the  clergy  as  their  teachei 
and  allies.  Thus  it  was  that  while  the  hostility  of  theii 
orthodox  subjects  had  weakened  the  Vandal  kingdom  h 
Africa  and  the  East  Gothic  kingdom  in  Italy,  the  eage 
sympathy  of  the  priesthood  helped  the  Franks  to  vai 
quish  their  Burgundian  and  West  Gothic  enemies,  an< 
made  it  comparatively  easy  for  them  to  blend  with  th< 
Roman  population  in  the  provinces.  They  had  done  g( 
service  against  the  Saracens  of  Spain ;  they  had  aided  th< 
English  Winfrith  (St.  Boniface)  in  his  mission  to  th< 
heathen  of  Germany ; a  and  at  length,  as  the  most  powei 

a  *  Denique  gens  Francorum  multos  et  foecundissimos  fructus  Domii 
attulit,  non  solum  credendo,  sed  et  alios  salutifere  convertendo,'  says  tl 
Emperor  Lewis  II  in  A.D.  871. 


THE  EMPIRE   RESTORED   IN  THE   WEST  37 

ful  among  Catholic  nations,  they  attracted  the  eyes  of  the  CHAP.  iv. 
ecclesiastical   head   of   the   West,  now   sorely  bested   by 
domestic  foes. 

Since  the  invasion  of  Alboin,  Italy  had  groaned  under  Italy.-  the 
a  complication  of  evils.  The  Lombards  who  had  entered  Lombards- 
along  with  that  chief  in  A.D.  568  had  settled  in  consider- 
able numbers  in  the  valley  of  the  Po,  which  became  the 
seat  of  their  kingdom,  and  had  founded  the  duchies  of 
Spoleto  and  Benevento,  leaving  the  Adriatic  coast  as  well 
as  Rome  and  the  Southern  provinces  to  be  governed  by 
the  exarch  of  Ravenna  as  viceroy  of  the  Eastern  crown. 
This  subjection  was,  however,  little  better  than  nominal. 
Although  too  few  to  occupy  the  whole  peninsula,  the  in- 
vaders were  yet  strong  enough  to  harass  every  part  of  it 
by  inroads  which  met  with  little  resistance  from  a  popula- 
tion unused  to  arms,  and  without  the  spirit  to  use  them  in 
self-defence.  More  cruel  and  repulsive,  if  we  may  believe 
the  evidence  of  their  enemies,  than  any  other  of  the 
Northern  tribes,  the  Lombards  were  certainly  singular  in 
their  aversion  to  the  clergy,  never  admitting  them  to  the 
national  councils.  Tormented  by  their  repeated  attacks, 
Rome  sought  help  in  vain  from  Constantinople,  whose 
forces,  scarce  able  to  repel  from  her  walls  the  Avars  and 
Saracens,  could  give  no  support  to  the  distant  exarch  of 
Ravenna.  The  Popes  were  the  Emperor's  subjects;  they  The  Popes. 
awaited  his  confirmation,  like  other  bishops ;  they  had 
more  than  once  been  the  victims  of  his  anger.b  But  as 
the  city  became  more  accustomed  to  a  practical  independ- 
ence, and  the  Pope  rose  to  a  predominance,  real  if  not  yet 
legal,  his  tone  grew  bolder  than  that  of  the  Eastern  patri- 
archs. In  the  controversies  that  had  raged  in  the  Church, 
he  had  had  the  wisdom  or  good  fortune  to  espouse  (though 

b  This  befel  Pope  Martin  I,  as  in  earlier  days  Sylverius. 


THE   HOLY   ROMAN    EMPIRE 


CHAP.  IV. 


Iconoclastic 
controversy, 
A.D.  726. 


A.D.  732. 


not  always  from  the  first) c  the  orthodox  side  :  it  was  now 
by  another  quarrel  of  religion  that  his  deliverance  from  an 
unwelcome  yoke  was  accomplished. 

The  Emperor  Leo,  born  among  the  Isaurian  mountains, 
where  a  simpler  faith  may  yet  have  lingered,  and  stung 
by  the  Mohammedan  taunt  of  idolatry,  determined  to 
abolish  the  worship  of  images,  which  seemed  to  be  fast 
obscuring  the  more  spiritual  part  of  Christianity.  An 
attempt  which  had  been  sufficient  to  cause  tumults  among 
the  submissive  populations  of  the  East  excited  in  Italy  a 
fiercer  commotion.  The  people  rose  with  one  heart  in 
defence  of  what  had  become  to  them  more  than  a  symbol : 
the  exarch  was  slain :  the  Pope,  though  unwilling  to  sever 
himself  from  the  lawful  head  and  protector  of  the  Church, 
must  yet  resist  and  rebuke  the  prince  whom  he  could  not 
reclaim  from  so  hateful  a  heresy.d  Liudprand,  king  of 
the  Lombards,  improved  his  opportunity.  Falling  on  the 
Exarchate  as  the  champion  of  images,  on  Rome  as  the 
pretended  ally  of  the  Emperor,  he  overran  the  one,  and  all 
but  succeeded  in  capturing  the  other.  Overawing  Liud- 
prand by  the  majesty  of  his  office,  the  Pope  escaped  for 
the  moment,  but  he  saw  his  peril.  Placed  between  a 
heretic  and  an  invader,  he  turned  his  gaze  beyond  the 
Alps,  to  a  Catholic  chief  who  had  just  achieved  a  signal ! 
deliverance  for  Christendom  by  his  defeat  of  the  Spanish 
Musulmans  on  the  field  of  Poitiers.  Gregory  II,  though 
his  reluctance  to  break  with  the  Eastern  Empire  led  him 
to  dissuade  the  North  Italians  from  the  notion  of  settii 
up  an  Emperor  against  Leo,e  had  already  opened  comi 

c  Vigilius  in  the  days  of  Justinian,  and  Honorius  I  in  those  of  Heracln 
had  lapsed  for  a  time  into  error. 

d  See  Note  III  at  end. 

e  *  Ammonebat  ne  a  fide  vel  amore  imperii  Romani  desisterent.'  —  Lib 
Pontificates,  ed.  Duchesne,  vol.  i.  p.  407.  So  Paulus  Diaconus  (ch.  xln 
'Omnis  Ravennae  exercitus  vel  Venetiarum  talibus  iussis  [the  command 


THE   EMPIRE   RESTORED   IN   THE   WEST  39 

nications  with  Charles  Martel,  mayor  of  the  palace,  and  CHAP.  iv. 
virtual  ruler  of  the  Prankish  realm.     As  the  crisis  becomes    The  Popes 
more  pressing,  Gregory  III  (who  had  excommunicated  the  Jff^j^ 
Iconoclasts  in  a  synod  at  Rome)  finds  in  the  same  quarter 
his  only  hope,  and  appeals  to  him,  in  urgent  letters,  to 
hasten  to  the  succour  of  Holy  Church. f      Some  accounts 
add  that  Charles  was  offered,  in  the  name  of  the  Roman 
people,  the  office  of  consul  and  patrician.     It  is  at  least 
certain  that  here  begins  the  connection  of  the  old  imperial 
seat  with  the  rising  Germanic  power  :  here  first  the  pontiff 
leads  a  political  movement,  and  shakes  off  the  ties  that 
bound    him    to   his   legitimate    sovereign.      Charles   died 
before    he   could  obey  the    call ;   but   his  son  Pipin  (sur- 
named  the  Short)  made  good  use  of  the  new  friendship 
with  Rome.     He  was  the  third  of  his  family  who  had  ruled 
the  Franks  with  the  full  power  of  a  monarch  :  it  seemed 
time  to  abolish  the  pageant  of  Merovingian  royalty ;  yet  a 
departure  from  the  ancient  line  might  shock  the  feelings 
of  the  people.     A  course  was  taken  whose  dangers  no  one 
then    foresaw :    the    Holy    See,    now  for    the    first    time 
invoked  as  an  international  or  supranational  power,  pro- 
nounced the  deposition  of  the  feeble   Merovingian   Chil-  A.D.  750-51. 
deric,  and  gave  to  the  royal  office  of  his  successor  Pipin  a 
sanctity  hitherto  unknown  ;    adding  to  the  old  Prankish 
election,  which  consisted  in  raising  the  chief  on  a  shield 
amid   the    clash    of    arms,    the    Roman    diadem   and   the 
Hebrew   rite   of   anointing.     The   compact   between   the  Pipin 
chair  of  Peter  and  the  Teutonic  throne  was  hardly  sealed,  Patrician 
when  the  latter  was  summoned  to  discharge  its  share  of  R0mam, 
the  duties.     Twice  did  Aistulf  the  Lombard  assail  Rome,  A.D.  754. 

destroy  images]  uno  animo  restiterunt,  et  nisi  eos  prohibuisset  Pontifex,  im- 
peratorem  super  se  constituere  fuissent  aggressi.' 

f  Letter  in   Codex  Carolines,  in  Muratori's  Scriptores  Rerum  Italicarum, 
vol.  iii  (part  2nd),  p.  75,  addressed  '  Subregulo  Carolo.' 


THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


CHAP.  IV. 


Import  of 
this  title. 


twice  did  Pipin  descend  to  the  rescue  :  the  second  time  at 
the  bidding  of  a  letter  written  in  the  name  of  St.  Peter 
himself.8  Aistulf's  resistance  was  easily  overcome ;  and 
the  Frank  bestowed  on  the  Papal  chair  all  that  had  be- 
longed to  the  Exarchate  in  North  Italy,  receiving  as  the 
meed  of  his  services  the  title  of  Patrician.11 

As  a  foreshadowing  of  the  higher  dignity  that  was  to  fol- 
low, this  title  requires  a  passing  notice.  Introduced  by  Con- 
stantine  at  a  time  when  its  original  meaning  had  been  long 
forgotten,  it  was  designed  to  be,  and  for  awhile  remained, 
the  name  not  of  an  office  but  of  a  rank,  the  highest  after 
those  of  emperor  and  consul.  As  such,  it  was  usually  con- 
ferred upon  provincial  governors  of  the  first  class,  and  in 
time  also  upon  barbarian  potentates  whom  the  imperial 
court  might  wish  to  flatter  or  conciliate.  Thus  Odoacer, 
Theodorich,  the  Burgundian  king  Sigismund,  Clovis  him- 
self, had  all  received  it  from  the  Eastern  Emperor;  so  too 
in  still  later  times  it  was  given  to  Saracenic  and  Bulgaria! 
princes.1  In  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  an  invariabl< 

£  Letter  in  Cod.  Carol.  (Mur.  R.  S.  I.  iii.  [2.]  p.  96),  a  strange  mixture  ol 
passionate  adjurations,  dexterous  appeals  to  Frankish  pride,  and  long  scrij 
tural  quotations :  '  Declaratum  quippe  est  quod  super  omnes  gentes  vestr 
Francorum  gens  prona  mihi  Apostolo  Dei  Petro  exstitit,  et  ideo  ecclesis 
quam  mihi  Dominus  tradidit  vobis  per  manus  Vicarii  mei  commendavi.' 

h  The  exact   date  when  Pipin  received  the   title  cannot  be  made  out. 
Pope  Stephen's  next  letter  (p.  96  of  Mur.  iii)  is  addressed  '  Pipino,  Carolo 
Carolomanno  patriciis.'    And  so  the  Chronicon  Casinense  (Mur.  iv.  273)  says  it 
was  first  given  to  Pipin.     Probably  it  was  not  formally  conferred  on  Charlt 
Martel,  although  one  or  two  documents  may  be  quoted  in  which  it  is  usec 
of  him.     As  one  of  these  is  a  letter  of  Pope  Gregory  IPs,  the  explanatioi 
may  be  that  the  title  was  offered  of  intended  to  be  offered  to  him,  althougl 
never  accepted  by  him.     The  nature  and  extent  of  Pipin's  donation  (whicl 
cannot  be  found  in  any  extant  document)   have  been  much  disputed,  b\ 
some  sort  of  gift  was  evidently  made. 

1  The  title  of  Patrician  appears  even  in  the  remote  West :  it  stands  in 
charter  of  Ini  the  West  Saxon  king,  and  in  one  given  by  Richard  of  Nor- 
mandy in  A.D.  1015.     Ducange,  s.v. 


THE   EMPIRE   RESTORED   IN   THE   WEST  41 

practice  seems  to  have  attached  it  to  the  East  Roman  CHAP.  iv. 
viceroys  of  Italy,  and  thus,  as  we  may  conjecture,  a  natural 
confusion  of  ideas  had  made  men  take  it  to  be,  in  some 
sense,  an  official  title,  conveying  an  extensive  though  un- 
defined authority,  and  implying  in  particular  the  duty  of 
overseeing  the  Church  and  promoting  her  temporal  inter- 
ests. It  was  doubtless  with  such  a  meaning  that  the 
Romans  and  their  bishop  bestowed  it  upon  the  Prankish 
kings,  acting  quite  without  legal  right,  for  it  could  emanate 
only  from  the  Emperor,  but  choosing  it  as  the  title  which 
bound  its  possessor  to  render  to  the  Church  support  and 
defence  against  her  Lombard  foes.  Hence  the  phrase  is 
always  ' Patricius  Romanorum' ;  not,  as  formerly,  ' Patri- 
ciits '  alone :  hence  it  is  usually  associated  with  the  terms 
'  defensor*  and  'protector'  And  since  *  defence'  implies  a 
corresponding  measure  of  obedience  on  the  part  of  those 
who  profit  by  it,  there  must  have  been  conceded  to  the 
new  patrician  more  or  less  of  positive  authority  in  Rome, 
although  not  such  as  to  extinguish  either  the  practical 
power  of  the  Pope  or  the  titular  supremacy  of  the  Em- 
peror. 

So  long  indeed  as  the  Franks  were  separated  by  a  Extinction 
hostile  kingdom  from  their  new  allies,  this  control  of  °ftheLom- 
Rome  remained  little  better  than  nominal.  But  when  on 
Pipin's  death  the  restless  Lombards  again  took  up  arms 
and  menaced  the  possessions  of  the  Church,  Pipin's  son 
Charles,  whom  we  commonly  call  Charlemagne,  swept 
clown  like  a  whirlwind  from  the  Alps  at  the  call  of  Pope 
Hadrian,  seized  King  Desiderius  in  his  capital,  himself 
.assumed  the  Lombard  crown,  and  made  Northern  Italy 
'thenceforward  an  integral  part  of  the  Prankish  Empire. 
Proceeding  to  Rome  at  the  head  of  his  victorious  army, 
the  first  of  a  long  line  of  Teutonic  kings  who  were  to 
experience  alternately  her  love  and  her  hate,  he  was 


THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


CHAP.  IV. 
A.D.  774. 


Charles  and 
Hadrian. 


received  by  Hadrian  with  distinguished  honours,  and  wel- 
comed by  the  people  as  their  leader  and  deliverer.  Yet 
even  then,  whether  out  of  policy  or  from  that  sentiment 
of  reverence  to  which  his  ambitious  mind  did  not  refuse 
to  bow,  he  was  moderate  in  claims  of  jurisdiction,  he 
yielded  to  the  pontiff  the  place  of  honour  in  processions, 
and  renewed,  although  in  the  guise  of  a  lord  and  con- 
queror, the  gift  of  the  Exarchate  and  Pentapolis,  which 
Pipin  had  made  to  the  Roman  Church  twenty  years  before. 
It  is  with  a  strange  sense,  half  of  sadness,  half  of 
amusement,  that  in  watching  the  progress  of  this  grand 
historical  drama  we  recognize  a  mixture  of  higher  and 
lower  motives  in  the  minds  of  the  chief  actors.  The 
Prankish  king  and  the  Roman  pontiff  were  for  the  time 
the  two  most  powerful  forces  that  urged  the  movement 
of  the  world,  leading  it  on  by  swift  steps  to  a  mighty 
crisis  of  its  fate,  themselves  guided,  as  it  might  well  seem, 
by  the  purest  zeal  for  its  spiritual  welfare.  Their  words 
and  acts,  their  character  and  bearing  in  the  sight  of 
expectant  Christendom,  were  worthy  of  men  destined  to 
leave  an  indelible  impress  on  their  own  and  many  sue-; 
ceeding  ages.  Nevertheless  in  them  too  appears  the 
undercurrent  of  material  interests.  The  lofty  and  fervent 
mind  of  Charles  was  not  free  from  the  stirrings  of  per-j 
sonal  ambition  :  yet  these  may  be  excused  as  being  almost 
inseparable  from  an  intense  and  restless  genius,  whicl 
be  it  never  so  unselfish  in  its  ends,  must  in  pursuing 
them  fix  upon  everything  its  grasp  and  raise  out  of  even 
thing  its  monument.  So  too  in  the  policy  of  the  Popes 
the  desire  to  secure  spiritual  independence  was  minglec 
with  less  noble  motives.  Ever  since  the  disappearam 
of  an  Emperor  from  Italian  soil  had  virtually  emancipatt 
the  ecclesiastical  potentate  from  secular  control,  the  mos 
abiding  object  of  his  schemes  and  prayers  had  been  th< 


EMPIRE   AND   POLICY   OF   CHARLES  59 

Roman  princes,  from  whom  he  had  little  to  fear,  and  who  CHAP.  v. 
were  none  the  more  likely  to  recognize  his  dignity,  if  they 
should  believe  it  to  be  not  of  his  own  seeking.  Yet  it  is 
hard  to  suppose  the  whole  affair  a  surprise  ;  for  it  was  the 
goal  towards  which  the  policy  of  the  Prankish  kings  had 
for  many  years  pointed,  and  Charles  himself,  in  sending 
before  him  to  Rome  many  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal 
magnates  of  his  realm,  in  summoning  thither  his  son  Pipin 
from  a  war  against  the  Lombards  of  Benevento,  had  shewn 
that  he  expected  some  more  than  ordinary  result  from  this 
journey  to  the  imperial  city.  Alcuin  moreover,  Alcuin  of 
York,  the  trusted  adviser  of  Charles  in  matters  religious 
and  literary,  appears  from  one  of  his  extant  letters  to  have 
sent  as  a  Christmas  gift  to  his  royal  pupil  a  carefully  cor- 
rected and  superbly  adorned  copy  of  the  Scriptures,  with 
the  words  'ad  splendorem  imperialis  potentiae.'  This  has 
commonly  been  taken  for  conclusive  evidence  that  the 
plan  had  been  settled  beforehand,  and  such  it  would  be 
were  there  not  some  reasons  for  giving  the  letter  an  earlier 
date,  and  looking  upon  the  word  '  imperialis '  as  a  mere 
magniloquent  flourish.1  More  weight  is  therefore  to  be 
laid  upon  the  arguments  supplied  by  the  nature  of  the 
case  itself.  The  Pope,  whatever  his  confidence  in  the 
sympathy  of  the  people,  would  never  have  ventured  on 
so  momentous  a  step  until  previous  conferences  had  as- 
sured him  of  the  feelings  of  the  king,  nor  could  an  act  for 
which  the  assembly  were  evidently  prepared  have  been 
kept  a  secret.  Nevertheless,  the  declaration  of  Charles 
himself  can  neither  be  evaded  nor  set  down  to  mere  dis- 
simulation. It  is  more  fair  to  him,  and  on  the  whole  more 
reasonable,  to  suppose  that  Leo,  having  satisfied  himself  of 
the  wishes  of  the  Roman  clergy  and  people  as  well  as  of 

1  Lorentz,  Leben  Alcuins.     And  cf.  Dollinger,  Das  Kaiserthum  Karh  des 
Grossen  und  seiner  Nachfolger. 


